Operation Marriage
by weshallflyaway2
Summary: Navin Singh Ahluwalia would desperately like to marry his girlfriend Tanisha when they finish their training at KMA and only one hurdle stands in his way: his little sister Naina is supposed to get married first. That's alright, Navin has a plan and the perfect scapegoat for it.
1. Prologue

Prologue

"Navin, I'm afraid that we've got a problem."

Navin Singh Ahluwalia, second year cadet at Kanchanjunga Military Academy, looked up from his lunch to find his girlfriend Tanisha regarding him with a very serious expression on her face.

"What happened, Tanu?" he asked her, concerned.

"My mother just called," she announced with a sigh, sitting down opposite him. "She's talking about getting me married off."

"So what did you say?" he asked, feeling nervous. They'd been together for almost a year now, and were very much in love, but Tanu's mother kept asking her to consider other proposals. She seemed to think that once Tanisha became an army officer, no man would want to marry her anymore.

"Well I told her no of course," Tanisha replied, "But Navin, you know that she thinks you're not serious about me."

"I know," Navin said sighing, "But you know what my situation is like. Until my little sister Naina gets married, my parents won't agree to my marriage. They're quite traditional about these things, and there's still almost a year left until we finish the academy…"

Tanisha rolled her eyes, "And then the very next day my mother will have me married off, Navin. You know what she's like!"

"Alright," Navin said, realising that Tanu was right about her mother. He had met the woman last year and had found her truly terrifying. "But that doesn't solve the problem of how we're supposed to get married when there's no sign of my sister being ready to settle down."

Navin had just turned twenty three while his sister was nineteen and due to turn twenty in a few months time. She was currently studying a business degree and last time Navin had brought up the subject of her marriage, she had flat out refused.

"Naina has her own ideas about marriage, she's determined that she will never agree for an arranged marriage, so that idea's out. I keep hoping she'll fall in love with somebody, but she just doesn't like any of the boys she knows."

Navin supposed that he was the first brother in the world who actually wanted his sister to fall in love with somebody. To be honest, he wasn't that keen on the idea, but he was afraid of losing Tanisha.

Suddenly Tanu's eyes brightened, "I have an idea!" she exclaimed.

Navin groaned, "Oh no, Tanu. This isn't going to turn out like most of your ideas is it?" He still remembered the time she had tried to set up Major Nair for a date with their yoga teacher in an effort to improve his mood….

"My ideas do not always turn out that bad!" Tanu exclaimed, "And this is the most sensible idea that I've had in a long time."

"Alright, tell me." Navin agreed reluctantly.

"Well Naina doesn't want an arranged marriage, and she doesn't like any of the boys she knows. So why don't we introduce her to a boy, do some subtle matchmaking and let true love take its course!"

Navin privately thought that Tanisha was being overly optimistic about the chances of the success of this plan, but didn't say so. He didn't want his girlfriend getting angry at him. "Alright Tanu, let's pretend that we put this plan into action, where do we get a guy from?"

"Navin, we are in a military academy, there's not exactly a lack of boys here in case you haven't noticed."

"You mean one of my friends?" Navin asked, horrified at the thought.

"Why not?" Tanisha retorted, "It's not as if your friends are all that bad, just choose one of them. At least that way you'd get on well with your brother-in-law!"

She had a point there, no tensions about his sister going to a bad house. However Navin knew what most of the boys at this academy were like, and there was no way he wanted Naina anywhere near them.

"Tanisha, I really don't know, do you think that any of the boys here are suitable for Naina? I mean, they're all so…"

"Look Navin, it's just a suggestion. If it doesn't work out then it doesn't but you can at least think about it."

"Okay, okay, I'm thinking, it's just that, well you know, she's my little sister and I'm not going to fix her up with just anybody. I want her settled well, with exactly the right guy."

"I agree with you, Navin." Tanisha told him seriously, "I'm not about to ruin your sister's life just to fix mine, so we'll only put the plan into action if we can get the right guy."

"Well what are our options?" Navin asked her, peering around the mess and looking at the faces there.

"Okay, well we'll use a process of elimination and short list them!" Tanisha announced. Navin was still slightly suspicious of this plan working as Tanisha seemed far too excited.

"Yudi." Tanisha suggested, seeing their friend seated at a nearby table.

"Too nervous," Navin replied, "I know my sister, Naina would turn him into a shivering heap on the very first date. And besides, he's been following Shalini around for months anyway."

"Ali." Tanisha said, looking at the boy next to Yudi, she wasn't about to reject anybody simply on the basis of a different religion. They had to examine all possibilities.

"Waaaay too traditional and shy, Naina would be bored within a few hours." Navin said, rolling his eyes, "Besides, haven't you realised that he's in love with Pooja yet?"

Tanisha nodded, conceding that he had a point, she also thought there was something going on between those two.

"Okay, what about Aalekh then? Naina already knows him, right?"

"No offence to Aalekh, but no way am I getting my sister married to an alcoholic tapori guy." Navin told her, "Besides, when I took Aalekh home last holidays they showed absolutely no interest in each other that way whatsoever. I wouldn't be surprised if Naina sends him a rakhi this year."

"Okaay, Abhimanyu then." Tanisha suggested, as their long haired friend walked into the room. "Just imagine, your sister could be a princess!"

"And have you forgotten that Abhimanyu is already going out with Nandini?" Navin asked her, "Besides, I really don't think that a life of royalty would suit my sister."

Navin studied the rest of the room in despair, not a single good candidate among the lot of them. He was just about to tell Tanu that her plan was a dud and they might as well give up, when his best friend walked into the room.

Navin suddenly regained hope, yes, this could work, this could definitely work! Their new candidate was good looking, intelligent, a decent gentleman, but still with a sense of humour and fun. Basically he had all of the qualities that Naina had stated she wanted in a man. Navin watched as his friend grabbed a plate and piled food onto it, then made his way over to sit next to them.

"What's up, guys?" Raj asked, "You haven't touched your food yet."

The scheming duo exchanged knowing glances, they had found their scapegoat.

Navin grinned mischievously, Raj would never know what hit him.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter One

The plan was to be executed in a number of stages, starting with stage one that very day. After Navin and Tanisha had settled on Raj as their scapegoat… uh, suitable candidate, they began planning in earnest.

Navin expressed his doubts, he didn't think that Raj would ever fall for a plan like this.

"You just have to act natural," Tanisha coached him, "Don't let him know that there's anything going on. If your sister is as pretty as you say she is, he should fall in love all by himself when he meets her!"

"Alright, well then we need a plan to get them to meet." Navin told her, and Tanisha's eyes lit up.

"Exactly! So now listen to step one of 'Operation Marriage'!"

" 'Operation Marriage'? What a stupid name!"

"Well can you think of a better one?" Tanu asked him, sounding offended and as if she was about to get angry at him.

Navin quickly changed his mind, annoying Tanisha was a very bad idea, "No, actually I think that Operation Marriage is a very appropriate name for this plan. Go on, tell me what step one is."

As Tanisha outlined the plan, Navin started nodding, this definitely was one of her better ones. While he still wasn't quite sure about setting up his little sister with a guy, he definitely wouldn't mind it if Raj became his brother-in-law.

/

Trying desperately hard to act casually, Navin approached Raj in the gym where he was busy exercising.

"Hey Raj."

"Oh hey, Navin, have you finally found the time to work out?" Raj asked, grinning. It was well known within the academy these days that most of Navin's spare time was spent with Tanisha.

"Very funny, yaar, yes I have finally found the time." And to prove his point, Navin picked up another set of weights and began lifting them. He didn't say anything for the next few minutes, remembering Tanisha's advice. 'Don't rush it,' she had told him, 'Raj will get suspicious'.

So Navin waited until Raj finished his exercise and only then started the conversation he'd planned.

"So Raj, are you going home for Diwali?"

"I don't know, yaar. Dad and mum will spend the whole time entertaining clients and going to fancy parties, I can't stand that type of atmosphere." Raj sighed, "But what other choice do I have? To stay at KMA and celebrate with Nair?"

"Well you could always come home with me." Navin offered, "We've got more than enough room in the house."

"Thanks Navin, but I really don't think it's a good idea. You hardly ever get to go home to see your family, it's probably best to see them alone."

"Don't be silly, Raj." Navin said, getting slightly desperate that his plan wasn't working out. "Aalekh came home with me last holidays and the whole family loved him. And if they liked Aalekh then I doubt they'll have a problem with you."

At this moment, Raj started to get slightly suspicious. It almost seemed as if Navin was just a bit too keen for him to come home for the holidays. "Navin, tell me the truth. Why are you asking me to come home with you?"

Navin fumbled for a believable reason and said the first thing that came to his mind, "Tanisha!"

"I'm coming to your house because of Tanisha?" Raj asked, getting genuinely confused now.

"Well, yes, because you see…" Navin quickly made up a reason, "I want to introduce Tanisha to my family."

"And it is important for me to be there, why?" Raj was not understanding his friend's logic.

"Because her mother doesn't want her to travel alone with me. She said if somebody else came too it would be fine."

Personally Raj wasn't sure why Tanisha's mother would be happier that her daughter was going to be traveling alone with two boys rather than one, but she was a rather strange woman.

"And if I come along then she'll allow Tanisha to go?"

"Exactly!" Navin exclaimed, relieved that Raj seemed to believe him. "So are you going to help me out?"

"Well, I guess so. I mean, isn't that what friends are for?"

"Thanks, yaar." Navin told him, "You have no idea how much this means to me."

Raj really, really didn't know what it meant to him.

/

"Me coming home with you for Diwali was not part of this plan, Navin!" Tanisha told him angrily.

"What was I supposed to do? He was getting suspicious and it was the only excuse I could think of! Just be glad that he believed it."

"But how am I supposed to convince my mother to actually let me go with you?"

"Do you want to get married or not?" Navin asked her, then an idea came to him, "Just tell her that I'm taking you to introduce you to my family properly. She'll think that I want to propose soon and definitely allow you to come!"

Tanisha considered this, "Not a bad idea, I'll call her now."

Watching her go, Navin realised it was time that he made a phone call as well.

Heading to the mess, he told Suriji that he wanted to use the phone and dialled his home number, waiting until a familiar voice came on the line.

"Hey sis, it's me!" he told Naina happily, privately thinking that she had no idea what he had in store for her.

"Navin Bhaiyya! It's great to hear from you, you hardly ever call home these days! You must be pretty busy with Tanu." Naina teased him.

"Ha ha, very funny, Naina." Navin replied, "Now listen carefully, I'll be bringing two friends home with me for Diwali this year."

"Great!" Naina replied happily, "Is Aalekh Bhaiyya coming with you again?"

Navin was suddenly relieved that he hadn't decided to pick Aalekh as Naina's potential husband…

"No, actually I was going to bring my friend Raj with me as he doesn't want to go home, and Tanu as well…"

Navin's ear was suddenly pierced by a squeal on the other end of the line that went on and on and on!

"Naina would you stop that, you're going to break my eardrum!" he told her.

"Sorry Bhaiya, but wow, you're bringing your girlfriend home with you!" Naina's voice became more serious, "This is a big step. You've never introduced us to any of your girlfriends before."

Navin realised that Naina was so focused on him bringing his girlfriend home that she hadn't said anything about Raj at all.

"Look Naina, just don't embarrass me in front of her, whatever you do! Please tell Ma and Baba about Tanu and Raj coming and make sure the guest room is ready for Tanu, Raj can stay in my room."

"That's cool, Bhaiya. Don't worry, I'll handle Ma and Baba. I can't wait to see you at Diwali!" she told him excitedly, "I'm really missing you!"

Navin couldn't wait either. So far everything was going perfectly, neither Naina nor Raj suspected anything, and their first hurdle had been overcome.

Operation Marriage had been set into motion.


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two:**

Less than two weeks later, Navin, Tanisha and Raj were on a bus heading to Nainital. Raj was sitting in the seat in front of the one that Navin and Tanisha shared, listening to music with his headphones on while reading a magazine. Navin and Tanisha decided that it was the perfect opportunity for them to do some last minute planning.

"So you remember how you're supposed to introduce them, right?" Tanu asked, and Navin rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, because I'm likely to forget after we've practiced it fifty times."

"Don't get too overconfident, Navin. One wrong move and our whole plan could be ruined!" Cautiously she glanced at the seat in front of them, but Raj was humming along to the music and flipping the pages of his magazine.

"I can't believe that you're not more nervous for yourself," Navin remarked, "After all, it's the first time you're meeting my family."

Tanu suddenly turned pale, "I've been so busy thinking about the plan that I'd completely forgotten about that. I hope that they like me."

"Don't worry Tanu, they'll love you." Navin reassured her, "They've been wanting to meet you for ages. I just hope that they love Raj just as much."

Looking at his friend sitting in front of him, Navin began to feel slightly guilty, was it right for him to interfere in Raj's life this way? Well the answer was of course no, but Navin decided that no matter how bad it was in the short term, Raj would thank him in the long term. After all, why wouldn't Raj be happy to be married to his sister?

Two hours later the bus arrived in Nainital and while Navin and Tanu were getting more and more nervous, Raj was perfectly happy and relaxed.

"Yaar, why do you look so happy?" Navin asked him, slightly suspicious that Raj must have figured out what they were planning.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Raj asked in reply, "I get to spend Diwali with two of my best friends away from my parents' snooty parties, and I can't wait to meet your family either!"

Navin decided that this was a good sign; after all, Naina was also a part of his family.

They took a taxi to his house since Navin had told his family that there was no need to pick them up.

Knocking on the door, Navin waited nervously. For a moment he forgot about 'Operation Marriage' as he instead thought about how his family would act when they first met Tanu and whether they would like her or not.

The door was flung open by a young woman who had clearly been waiting for them for a long time.

"You're finally here!" She said joyfully, and before Navin could start his long practiced introduction, she started speaking again. "Bhaiyya it's so good to see you!" Naina told him, hugging him warmly. "And you must be Tanu, I've been wanting to meet you for the longest time and I'm so happy you came home with Navin for Diwali!" She hugged Tanu, who was too surprised by Naina's welcome to know what to say but hugged her back happily. Finally Naina turned to Raj and Navin waited, holding his breath "And you must be Raj! I've heard a lot about you from Navin before now so it's good to finally meet you!" And she held out her hand to Raj who shook it warmly, seemingly amused by Naina's enthusiasm.

"It's good to meet you too, Navin is always talking about you at the academy, and I've heard about you from Aalekh too."

"How is Aalekh Bhaiyya?" Naina asked, not realising how funny Raj would find it for their tapori friend to be referred to as 'Aalekh Bhaiyya', when most people would probably rather refer to him as 'Aalekh Bhai'.

"He's fine," Raj replied, "He's going home with our friend Yudi for Diwali this time. He said to say hello to you when I arrived."

Navin had been watching this and was happy that they seemed to be getting on so well from the very beginning.

"Naina, are you going to invite us inside or are we going to stand on the doorstep for the rest of our Diwali holiday?" he asked her.

"Oh, right, sorry about that!" she replied, and then called out "Ma, they're here!" and still didn't step aside from the doorstep.

"Naina, are you going to…" 

"No Bhaiyya, orders are orders!" Naina told him with a mock strict look, "As a soldier you should know that. And I'm under strict orders from Ma that you should enter the house properly."

Navin peered inside to see his mother hurrying forward with a pooja thali in her hands and sighed, he should've guessed this would happen. His mother beamed happily at Tanu and then completed all the rituals to greet them as Raj hung back slightly to one side. When it was over both Navin and Tanu touched his mother's feet at the same time, followed by Raj.

"Ma, this is Tanu, and this is my friend Raj." Navin introduced them properly.

"What a beautiful girl you've chosen, Navin. I couldn't approve more!" His mother gushed, and Navin sighed in relief.

"Naina, why don't you show Tanu to the guest room?" Mrs Ahluwalia suggested.

"Uh, no Ma, I'll show Tanu to the guest room myself." Navin said quickly, "Naina, why don't you show Raj where my room is?"

This served a double purpose. Firstly he would get to discuss the progress of their plan with Tanisha in private and secondly, Raj and Naina would spend some more time together.

As soon as they'd reached the guest room he shut the door, and turned to Tanisha.

"I think that went really well!" he told her happily.

"Well your mother and Naina both seem to like me which is a relief," she replied, "I hope your father likes me too when he arrives home tonight."

"Don't worry, he'll love you just as much as they did." Navin hugged Tanu with one arm, overjoyed that so far his family seemed very impressed by her.

"Hmmm, but what about Raj and Naina."

"That went well too."

"It could have been better."

"How?" Navin asked, confused, "What were you expecting, Tanisha?"

"Well perhaps something like this…" she responded, and launched into a description of the scene…

/

Naina would've opened the door and looked at them all happily while Navin made the introductions. Quietly and shyly she would have greeted Tanisha with a hug, as all the while Raj gazed at her, amazed and awestruck by her beauty… Finally when Navin introduced the two of them, they would've stared into each other's eyes, having fallen instantly in love and forgetting to let go of each others' hands…

/ 

Navin stared at Tanisha when she had finished narrating the scene, with a look that clearly said he thought she was crazy.

"Tanu, you watch too many Himdi films." He told her.

Tanisha shrugged, admitting that what she had hoped had been a little unrealistic.

"Still, it would've been nice if it had happened that way," she replied, "It would've made our work a lot easier."

"If I know both my sister and my best friend well then neither of them is the type to fall in love at first sight," Navin commented, "Unfortunately they're both far too sensible for that. So we'll just have to keep creating situations that will make them fall in love."

"Which means that they need lots of time together."

"Exactly, so let's delay coming out of the room and let them think we're romancing in here."

"Navin! Right now your mother has a good opinion of me, do you want that to change?"

"Relax, Ma is in the kitchen… you know we don't just have to pretend to be romancing…"

Phase two of their plan was going well, Naina had liked both Tanisha and Raj. Now the next hurdle was getting Naina and Raj to come closer to each other…

Navin just wish he knew what was going on right now as Naina showed Raj to his room…


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

As Naina led Raj to Navin's room, he found himself examining the girl in front of him. He had liked her as soon as he had seen her, she had a type of carefree happiness and lack of self consciousness that appealed to him. Raj never knew how to act with the type of girls who would be too shy in front of boys, refusing to speak. It didn't hurt either that Navin's sister was especially pretty, even wearing a simple salwar kurta with her hair done up in a pony tail.

When they arrived at the room, Naina gestured him inside and showed him where to put his bag.

"So would you like anything?" she asked him, "Some chai or coffee? You must be tired after your trip."

"That's okay," Raj replied, "I don't want to put you to any trouble, I'll wait until Navin and Tanu are ready."

Naina rolled her eyes, "Then you'll probably be waiting awhile. In case you haven't noticed, Navin has gone into the guest room with her and I doubt they'll be coming out for awhile."

Raj raised his eyebrows at Naina, unable to believe that she would talk like that about her brother.

Naina laughed at his expression, "I didn't mean it like that! They're probably talking about Ma's and my reactions, Tanisha looked a bit nervous when she arrived."

Raj was impressed at how much Naina had noticed, "Alright, well I'll have some chai as long as you're having one as well."

"Of course," Naina told him, "It would be rude of me not to keep you company!"

He followed Naina to the kitchen, passing by her mother on the way.

"Naina, I've just got to go and buy some things for dinner tonight, I'll be back soon." Mrs Ahluwalia told her. "Raj beta, make yourself at home and ask Naina for anything you need."

"Thanks Aunty." Raj told her, and Mrs Ahluwalia left the house.

After offering to help and being refused, Raj sat at the kitchen table while Naina prepared some chai, making enough for it to be reheated when Navin and Tanu finally decided to exit the guest bedroom.

"So you're my brother's roomie too, aren't you?" she asked him as she stirred the pot.

"Yeah, we've been together since day one at KMA," Raj replied, "That's probably why we've gotten so close."

"Navin talks about you a lot on the phone." Naina told him, turning around with a smile. "I almost feel like I know all of his friends at KMA I've heard so much about them. Of course until today I'd only met Aalekh, but I know there's also Yudi, Shalini, Abhimanyu, Nandini, Ali and Pooja."

"It's amazing that you remembered everybody's names." Raj responded, "We're a big gang, but we manage to get up to an awful lot of masti and shararat."

When Naina had made the chai she brought two mugs over, handed one to Raj and then sat down with the other. The next few minutes were spent discussing the various pranks that Raj, Navin and their friends got up to at KMA and the numerous detentions they'd had to do because of them.

"So Navin says that you're studying business." Raj said, they'd been talking about him for so long that he thought it was time he found out a little bit more about Naina.

"Yes, I've got one year left." Naina said, "And then after that I'd like to do my MBA."

As they continued drinking their tea, Naina told him about her studies and her friends, and Raj found himself laughing at her stories about her own pranks at college.

They were both laughing about one particular story when Navin and Tanisha walked into the room, Raj caught them giving each other a knowing look out of the corner of his eye. He frowned slightly, he knew that look; it meant that the two of them were up to something.

"Well you two seem to be getting along well!" Navin announced cheerfully, a little too cheerfully for Raj's liking.

"Well what else could we do with you two shut up together in the guest room." Naina told him teasingly, "It's very kind of you love birds to join us, I was just waiting for you to come out so I could begin making some pakoras."

"Pakoras!" Navin announced gleefully, "Naina, have I ever told you that you're the best sister in the world?"

"Well yes, but there's nothing to stop you telling me again!" Naina joked.

Tanisha tried to offer to help with the cooking but Naina firmly refused. "There's no need to try and impress me," she teased Tanisha, "It's the first time you've come to our house and you're here as a guest. After you and Navin have gotten married, I'll sit back and relax and let you do everything!"

Tanisha blushed at Naina's last comment, which had obviously been her aim by the small grin on her face.

As Naina prepared and fried up the pakoras, the four of them continued chatting and laughing, both Tanisha and Raj feeling like they had known Naina much longer than just today. When the pakoras were done and they were all sitting around the table eating them with chai, Naina insisted on telling Tanisha the most embarrassing stories from Navin's childhood.

It was only three in the afternoon by this stage, and after taking the plates to the sink, Naina made an announcement. "Well Bhaiyya, as today is the first day of Diwali, don't you think we should all go out shopping?"

"And by shopping, I guess you mean that I should buy you something to wear, right?"

"Of course! You're much more intelligent than I could've guessed!" Naina joked with him, "After those delicious pakoras I just made you, don't you think I deserve something? And I'll need a bribe if you want me to give you and Tanu any opportunities to romance over the next few days!"

As soon as Mrs Ahluwalia had arrived home with the groceries, the four of them set out for an afternoon of shopping, and Naina managed to convince Navin to buy her a new outfit and some chappals, while she bought him a new set of jeans and a shirt. The brother sister duo then disappeared for awhile before arriving back with another small bag, refusing to say what it contained.

Navin also tried to buy Tanisha a new outfit, but being a very independent girl she refused, telling him that she would buy one herself and also buying an outfit for Diwali. After much insistence from everybody else, Raj also bought himself a new pair of jeans and a shirt.

"Hmmm, these jeans are all very well for normal occasions, but don't you think you should have something traditional for Diwali?" Naina asked them in a very disapproving tone of voice, which Raj struggled not to laugh at.

"Accha, mere Ma!" Navin said, frustrated "We'll go and buy something traditional too," at least half an hour more was spent buying them some kurta pyjama before Naina was finally satisfied and announced that they could all go home.

By the time they arrived back with all of their shopping Mr Ahluwalia was already home from work, so he was introduced to Tanisha, who touched his feet. Behind her father's back, Naina gave Navin a thumbs up sign as if to say 'Well done Bhaiyya'.

After dinner they sat in the lounge room with Navin and Naina's parents, who were interested in getting to know Tanu better. While they chatted away, Naina met Raj's eyes and smiled at him, wanting to show her happiness that everything was going so well. Raj found himself returning it, and thinking that Naina looked even more beautiful when she smiled. He looked away from her hurriedly, turning his attention back to Navin, Tanu and Mr and Mrs Ahluwalia, and spotted Navin watching him with a satisfied expression on his face, Navin's expression quickly changing when he realised Raj was looking at him.

This had been the second time today that Raj had seen that expression on Navin's face, and he still couldn't help feeling that Navin was planning something. He knew his friend too well to doubt otherwise.

Raj was tempted to ask his friend what he was up to, but he didn't get a chance because Navin fell asleep almost as soon as they went to bed.

Thinking that he was probably just imagining things, Raj decided to go to sleep as well. They would all be getting up early in the morning and had a long day ahead of them.


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4:**

Raj awoke early, bathed, and dressed in his new jeans and shirt. He passed Navin in the hallway as his friend was on the way to the bathroom, still yawning as he tried to wake up.

Raj searched the house but couldn't see anyone, so he stepped out the front door and stopped in surprise. There, wearing quite a traditional looking salwar kameez, was Naina making a rangoli.

She must have heard him come out because she looked up and smiled, gesturing to him to crouch down beside her. "I didn't think you'd wake up so early since you were on holidays," she told him, "I'll just get this finished and then make us all some coffee."

"Where are your parents?" Raj asked her.

"They've gone to the temple already to offer some prayers." Naina replied, "They should be back soon."

Watching her making the patterns, Raj couldn't help a smile of amusement coming to his face.

"What?" Naina asked him, when she turned to see his expression, "What's so funny?"

"I just never thought you'd be the type of girl to do this kind of thing." He said, gesturing to the pattern on the ground. "I thought you were one of those modern types who…"

Naina laughed at that, "What did you think? That a girl has to be only traditional or modern? It's not like I do this type of thing every day, just on special occasions."

"Sorry," Raj said sheepishly, "I guess it was a silly thing to say."

"Not really," Naina replied, giving him a smile to let him know she didn't really mind, "Do you have any sisters?"

"No, I'm an only child." Raj told her, "Which is probably why I've got no idea what girls are really like."

Naina laughed at that, "Why? There's girls at the academy, right?"

"Well, yeah… but I never really talk about anything with them other than training."

Shaking her head and grinning, Naina finished off the rangoli and dusting off her hands, headed inside. Raj followed her, sitting down at the kitchen table while she made coffee. Navin soon joined them, followed by Tanisha, who still looked quite tired.

"I can't believe I slept in so late." She commented, "I should've been up hours ago."

"Don't worry, it's your holidays after all." Naina reassured her, "Now after we've finished our breakfasts we'll all be going to the temple."

"Oh really?" Navin asked her with an eyebrow raised, "And who made this decision?"

"I did." Naina told him in a strict tone, "Really Bhaiyya, it won't hurt you to go once in awhile, it's not like I go every day either. It is Diwali after all."

After some more mock complaining from Navin, they all walked down the road to the local temple, passing Navin and Naina's parents since they were on the way back. The prayers didn't take long, and Naina made sure that tikkas were applied to Navin, Raj and Tanu, telling them that it was for their success at the academy.

"That's very sweet of you, Naina, thanks." Raj told her, "Navin you're so lucky to have a sister, I wish I'd had one."

Navin and Tanu exchanged looks of alarm, the last thing they needed was for Raj to decide he wanted Naina to become his sister.

"Uh, it's not that big a deal having a sister." Navin replied, "It's far more important to have a wife." He felt like slapping himself in the head as soon as he'd said it, seeing the annoyed look on Naina's face.

"Thanks a lot, Navin." She told him, "So now that you've met your future wife you've completely forgotten your sister, have you?"

"Oh come on, Naina! I didn't mean it like that!" Navin called out as she walked away angrily.

"Why couldn't he just have agreed with me?" Raj asked Tanu, amazed by Navin's lack of tact.

"No idea at all." Tanu replied, although Raj thought that she had said it just a little too quickly.

It took awhile for Navin and Naina to make up, and she made him hold his ears before she'd forgive him. By this stage it was almost lunch time and they went home to eat the meal that Mrs Ahluwalia had created.

"We should show Tanu and Raj around town after lunch." Naina told her brother, "It's not that exciting, but we can at least give them the tour."

"That sounds great!" Navin said, before Tanu kicked him in the leg and he started choking on his rice.

"Is something wrong, Navin?" Raj asked him, concerned about why his friend was coughing so much.

"Uh, no Raj, nothing at all." Navin said, realising that he'd just stuffed up their plan.

After lunch he cornered Naina in the kitchen, trying to set things right. "Uh, Naina, could I ask a favour of you?" he said, trying his best to sound sincere and hopeful.

"Here we go, I knew something was up as soon as you started coughing at the table." Naina told him, "Really Navin, you're just so obvious sometimes."

"Really?" Navin asked, surely she couldn't have figured it out already… "You know I just wanted that…"

"That you could spend some time alone with Tanu, right? Therefore dumping Raj with me?" Naina looked at Navin expectantly, challenging him to deny it.

"Well you wouldn't mind would you?" Navin asked her, "I mean, Tanu and I hardly ever get the chance to be alone when we're at the academy…"

"Fine Bhaiyya, I will show Raj around town while you two go off to romance." Naina said with a sigh, pretending to be more annoyed than she actually was.

"Excellent! You're the best sister in the world, Naina!"

"Yeah well, that wasn't what you were saying this morning."

"Sorry about that." Navin said, trying to sound sincere.

"When are you and Tanu going to get married anyway?" Naina asked him, "I mean, is she the one for you?"

"I really think so." Navin told Naina seriously, "But I don't know when we'll get married."

"Why not?" Naina asked frowning, "If you love her then what's the problem?"

"Well you need to get married first." As soon as he'd said it, Navin began cursing his own stupidity. Why did these things just come out of his mouth whenever he was around Naina?

"Nice try Bhaiyya!" Naina said, laughing, "But if you're going to be waiting for me to get married then you'll be waiting for awhile yet! I'm not going to give in until my MBA is finished."

Still laughing, she began to walk out of the kitchen.

"Where are you going?" Navin asked her.

"Where do you think? To take Raj out for a walk so that you two can have some privacy!"

Well no matter how much he had nearly stuffed the whole thing up, at least the next phase of their plan had been accomplished. Navin hurried away to tell Tanu, despite the fact that it was all part of their mission, he really was excited to have some time alone with her this morning.

/

Raj was just coming out of the bedroom when he met Naina on the way to see him.

"Where are Navin and Tanisha?" he asked her.

"Well they've decided to abandon us so that they can go off and romance." Naina told him with a shrug, "So it's just you and me for the grand tour of Nainital, I hope you don't mind!"

"Of course not," Raj replied, "I am a bit annoyed at Navin though. First he invites me home for Diwali and then he disappears. It would've been better if he just came with Tanu, at least then you wouldn't be put to so much trouble."

"It's no trouble at all." Naina reassured him, "I've got time off college and nothing better to do, and you're not such a bad guy to hang out with."

Raj smiled, truly he didn't mind Navin abandoning him with Naina. She was a nice girl and he enjoyed spending time with her. He was sure that they would have a good time together today.

For the rest of the afternoon they roamed around town, as Naina showed him the lake, took him up the mountain in the cable car, to the zoo and to the mall area. They had a great time, and were surprised to find out how much they had in common. Both of them had a certain amount of mischievous humour, and they enjoyed making jokes at both Navin and Tanisha's expense.

They were just returning to the house when Naina spotted something in the distance and groaned. "Oh god, not again…" she muttered, and grabbing Raj's arm, turned him in the opposite direction, walking quickly.

"What is it?" Raj asked, looking back over his shoulder.

"Just don't look back!" Naina hissed, "He'll spot us!"

"Who?" Raj asked her, desperately wanting to look back over his shoulder again to find out what she was talking about.

"Who? Some crazy Punjabi boy that's here on holidays and has been making my life hell, that's who!" Naina said angrily, "It was my bad luck when I ran into him in the mall, ever since then he's decided we're made for each other and has been following me around."

Amused by this, Raj turned to look back over his shoulder, and sure enough saw a young man hurrying to catch up with them.

"Naina, I hate to tell you this, but I think he's gaining on us." Raj whispered, still more amused than anything else at Naina's reactions.

"Let's run for it!" Naina suggested, obviously ready to take off as soon as he agreed.

"Don't be ridiculous," Raj told her, "What are you worried about? I'm with you."

An idea seemed to come to Naina even as Raj heard the young man calling out her name as he struggled to catch up with them. "Just follow my lead." She told him, a mischievous look on her face, "Play along with whatever I say."

"Well alright, but…" Raj couldn't say anything else, as the young man had finally caught up with them, breathing heavily from hurrying.

"There you are Nainaji!" he said happily, "This Amardeep Huda knew that today was going to be a good day, and sure enough I was lucky enough to see your face this morning." Naina's expression instantly turned to a scowl, and Huda turned to face Raj, looking him up and down with an unhappy expression. "And who's this?" he asked.

Raj put his hand out to greet the man, but before he could speak, Naina cut in. "This is Cadet Rajveer Singh Shekawat from Kanchanjunga Military Academy," pausing for extra dramatic effect she added, "My boyfriend."

Huda looked taken aback, but shook Raj's hand anyway, "You can call me Huda, everybody does." He informed Raj, then turned to Naina, "Since when have you had a boyfriend? You didn't mention that to me before." 

"I didn't think I needed to mention it considering that we hardly know each other." She told him smugly, "Raj has come to visit me for the holidays, we're very much in love." To prove her point, she put her arms around Raj's waist, hugging him to her. Feeling only slightly uncomfortable with all of this, Raj put an arm around her shoulder, hugging her closer to him.

"And how do you know Naina?" he asked Huda, "I just hope you haven't fallen for her. Although my girlfriend is so beautiful that I wouldn't blame you if you had." He turned to Naina intending to gaze at her with a soppy expression, and she gave him a look that meant she thought he was doing brilliantly.

"Uh, I'm just here on holidays, I met Nainaji in the mall a week ago." Huda told him, "How long have you two been going out now?"

"Oh, about a year now." Naina replied airily, "It's so difficult with Raj being at the academy, but we just have to live with this temporary separation, don't we darling?"

"Of course honey, soon we'll be together forever." Raj said a touch too dramatically and Naina gave him another look, this one saying that she thought he was taking it way too far. Raj thought that maybe he had overdone it, and was worried that this Huda might guess they were only pretending.

"What's he got that I don't?" Huda asked Naina sulkily, looking Raj up and down once again.

"Well let's see, he's better looking than you, smarter than you, more polite than you, and he's in the army. So obviously, he's much better than you are." Naina told Huda a little rudely, but she was sick of being followed for a whole week by a guy who just wouldn't give up.

"And if I challenge him for you? If we have a fight and I win?"

Raj had to give Huda points for that, he couldn't believe how infatuated this guy was.

"Well I don't think that a girl is an object that should be won in a fight." Raj replied to him, "Naina can make her own mind up about who she wants, but if you still want to fight maybe I can teach you some of the hand to hand combat moves we learn in the army."

Taking a last angry look at Raj and then a mournful one at Naina, Huda left them both there.

"I feel bad," Raj remarked, "Poor boy."

"Poor boy? Poor me!" Naina replied, "At least that should give me some peace now, you have no idea what it's been like."

"So did I play my role well?" Raj asked jokingly.

"You were perfect!" Naina told him, linking her arm through his as they walked towards the house, "Well, there were a few moments where you overdid it slightly…"

By the time they got back to the house, Navin and Tanisha were already there, and they grinned at each other when they saw Naina and Raj walk in the gate with their arms linked, laughing so hard that they were almost falling over each other.

"So what's so funny, you two?" Tanisha asked them.

"Nothing, Tanu, nothing at all," Raj replied, "Just a little bit of masti."

Letting go of Raj's arm, Naina came to sit next to Tanu, as Raj took a seat next to Navin.

"So how was your day?" Naina asked the two of them, "Did you get enough privacy?" She stressed the last word, waggling her eyebrows up and down at Navin.

"Yes we did," Navin told her, laughing at the expression Naina was making, "What about you two, did you do okay on your own?"

"Raj and I had a wonderful day!" Naina declared, "In fact we didn't miss the two of you at all!"

Looking across the table at Raj, she grinned as if they were sharing a secret, and laughing, Raj raised his hand and met Naina's in a high five.

"I don't get it, what's so funny?" Navin asked, pleased that they were getting on so well but confused about what had happened.

"Trust me, you don't want to know." Raj told him, "But no excuses tomorrow, Navin. We should all be together for the third day of Diwali!"

"Fine," Navin replied, knowing it would be too obvious if he and Tanu disappeared yet again, leaving Naina and Raj alone.

However he was still hoping that the fireworks and crackers wouldn't be the only sparks to happen the next day…


	6. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5:**

Sneaking out of the bedroom before Raj could wake up, Navin crept down the hall and knocked on Tanisha's door quietly. She opened it straight away, obviously having been expecting him.

"So," she whispered, "How do you think it's going?" The previous night they had arranged to meet before anybody woke up to discuss the progress of their mission.

"I think it's going well so far," Navin whispered back, "They're becoming friends and they do seem to like each other."

"But they haven't fallen in love yet!" Tanisha said, sounding quite annoyed about it. "When's it going to happen?"

"Tanu, you can't hurry love!" Navin told her, feeling a bit exasperated, "They've only known each other for one and a half days, you can't expect it to happen instantly!"

"But we've only got five days!" Tanisha sounded worried, "Two days are gone and we only have three left, can we really do it in that time?"

"I don't know," Navin told her honestly, "As far as I know both of them, they're not likely to fall in love that quickly. We're just going to have to hope for the best. And if it's not done by the time we return to the academy then we just keep working on it."

Tanisha nodded, even she knew that they couldn't hope for too much too quickly, but she couldn't help being anxious when her entire future with Navin relied on this plan working.

"And if we fail?" she whispered, unable to keep the worry out of her voice? "If they don't fall in love and don't want to get married?"

"Then we think of a new plan." Navin told her gently and hugged her, "No matter what happens Tanu, we'll find a way to be together."

Shortly afterwards he crept back to his own room with Raj to find his friend completely awake.

"Don't think that I didn't notice you sneaking out before, Navin!" Raj told him jokingly, "At least have some shame in your parents' house!"

"I just needed to go to the bathroom." Navin tried to make an excuse, while inside he was cursing Raj for being such a light sleeper.

"Oh, really?" Raj raised his eyebrows at this, "You must have really been having some problems if you were in the bathroom all this time. It's been more than half an hour since you sneaked out of the room, Navin!" Then with a very mischievous look on his face he added, "Or does that mean that the next time I need to go to the bathroom, I should be heading towards the guest bedroom?"

Realising that Raj was teasing him and that he hadn't figured out what Navin had actually been doing, Navin relaxed and picked up his pillow, hitting Raj with it. Before long it was an all out pillow fight which only ended when a curious Naina poked her head around the door to find out what all the noise was. She shrieked and ducked out again, closing it quickly as Navin threw the pillow at her instead.

After this they quickly got ready before joining the rest of the family for breakfast.

Due to Naina's nagging the night before, both Raj and Navin dressed in their new kurta pyjamas, while the girls both wore new salwar kameez. Breakfast was a very happy occasion, filled with jokes, usually at Navin's expense as both Raj and Naina ganged up on him. Navin and Naina's parents announced that they would all be spending the morning together, as they were going to drive up to a nearby lookout point and then have a picnic lunch.

Tanu was excited by this idea, glad to be spending more time with Navin's parents, that was until she saw Navin's slight frown and realised the bad point in this plan. Raj and Naina were hardly going to be encouraged to romance with Naina's parents around. As everybody went off to prepare for the day, Navin and Tanisha snuck out of the house to meet in the front garden.

"What are we going to do?" Navin asked her, "Nothing is ever going to happen like this."

"Well… we could leave them behind on the mountain so that they have to find their way back together. That always makes people fall in love in movies!" Tanisha said the first thing that came into her head, before realising the obvious hole in her plan, "Except for the fact that your parents would obviously realise if they weren't in the car with us on the way back."

Navin suddenly saw the light side of the situation and started laughing, "I can't believe how silly we're being, Tanu." He said, shaking his head, "I think we just need to relax and see what happens. Let's just enjoy our holiday."

Tanisha nodded, even she thought they were getting way too stressed about this mission of theirs.

Shortly after breakfast when they'd packed a lunch for the trip, and the young people had changed out of their formal clothes into something more casual, everybody piled into the car together and set off for the picnic and lookout spot. Navin's father was just explaining to Raj about the trek that could be taken up the mountain to an even more impressive viewpoint.

"Wow, Navin, we should do that." Raj commented, "I haven't been on a good trek for a long time." Turning to Naina, who was sitting beside him (something that Tanisha had managed by making Naina get into the car before she did), he asked her, "What do you think, Naina? Are you up for it?"

"Sure, but don't get so confident right now, you haven't seen our mountains yet." She joked with him.

Navin and Tanisha exchanged a secret smile, it was all working out perfectly and they barely had to do a thing.

They arrived at the spot after about an hour of driving and helped Navin and Naina's parents to unpack the car. It was a beautiful area and they weren't the only people who had had the idea of coming for a picnic for Diwali. Choosing a shady area underneath a tree they spread their picnic blanket and put the things on it. Both pulling out books to read, Mr and Mrs Ahluwalia encouraged the young people to go for a walk and trek up the mountain.

As Raj and Naina headed off at a good pace, Naina excitedly explaining to him what they would see when they reached the top, Navin gestured to Tanisha to go slightly slower.

"That way they'll have some time alone on the walk, and have to wait for us together at the top." He explained in a whisper.

Tanisha gave him a thumbs up, impressed with his plan. It wasn't for nothing that Navin was the best cadet at KMA, he really did have a good head for strategy. They slowed their pace practically dawdling up the mountain, and thought their plan was working when Raj suddenly turned around.

"You two are far too slow," he announced, "Hurry up or we won't make it before night!"

"You go ahead," Navin told him, "We'll make our way up in our own time, don't worry about us."

Naina made a sudden face at Raj, tilting her head in the direction of Navin and Tanisha.

Laughing, Raj finally understood. "Ohhhh, so Janab wants some time to romance, does he? Don't worry Navin, we'll give you guys some privacy, just don't take too long to reach the top or we're leaving without you."

Saying this he gestured to Naina for them to go, and they set off, Navin and Tanisha exchanged a high five and then waited for them to be gone a safe distance before continuing. Navin was happy to see that in the distance, Raj had stretched out his hand, offering to help Naina over a particularly difficult rocky area. His smile grew even more when the normally independent Naina put her hand into Raj's, allowing herself to be helped.

Everything was going perfectly.

/

Raj and Naina took the climb at their own pace, talking while they went. Raj wasn't sure why, but he found himself telling Naina about his family, about how snobby they were and how glad he had been to escape them when he went to the academy.

"They were against me joining the army of course," he told her, "They would have much preferred me to study business and do my MBA at some foreign university."

"How terrible," Naina said, and Raj realised that she wasn't joking, "I've never wanted to go abroad for anything other than a holiday. It must be hard having parents who don't understand your ambitions or dreams."

Raj had been surprised how easy it was to talk to her, considering that they'd only known each other a couple of days. Already he had told her more about himself than he'd intended to.

"So you don't want to do your MBA abroad then?" he asked her.

"No way," Naina replied, "I know foreign universities are better respected, but there are plenty of good MBA programs right here in India. I just don't think I would enjoy being away from my family and my home for such a long time."

Raj nodded, "You're lucky, Naina, it's good that you've got a family you'll miss when you're away from them. As much as I love my parents, they've never been able to understand me, and I've never been able to understand them."

Naina looked back over her shoulder, "Where do you think that Navin and Tanu have gotten to? They must be quite far behind us by now?"

Raj laughed at that, "Let them have their privacy. Navin is too obvious when he's trying to do something secretly, I guessed that he wanted to be alone with her the moment I saw they were falling behind us."

"They do make a cute couple, don't they?" Naina asked him, "I think I would like having Tanu as my Bhabi, I hope that everything works out between them."

"Well they're very serious about each other." Raj told her, "Navin might have flirted a lot with girls in the past, but he really does love Tanu, and she's crazy about him too."

The rest of the trip up the mountain they discussed Navin and Tanu, as Naina had been dying to know how the two of them had fallen in love, but obviously she couldn't ask her brother and she hadn't known whether it would be alright to ask Tanu or not.

When they finally reached the top, the view was breathtaking. They sat back on a bench, relaxing, as they waited for Navin and Tanisha to make it to the top, continuing their conversation about each others' families and the academy and Naina's college.

Navin and Tanisha reached the top about twenty minutes later.

"It's about time!" Naina told them, "I'm starving after that climb, let's go back down and have our lunch."

Navin and Tanu sat down for a moment to rest and enjoy the view then they all climbed down the mountain together again, arriving just as Navin and Naina's parents had finished setting out their picnic. Everybody collapsed on the picnic blanket, exhausted, Naina complaining that her legs hurt since she was the only one of them not used to a great deal of exercise.

They all ate and chatted happily, both Tanisha and Raj were happy at how welcoming and warm Navin and Naina's parents were. Since it was already early in the afternoon they decided that it was time to go back home so that they could begin preparing for that night.

In the car on the way back, Naina drifted off to sleep, tired out from the long walk and then the lunch afterwards. Her head slipped down to rest on Raj's shoulder, whose eyes were also closed.

Navin couldn't help thinking how perfect they looked together. It couldn't have turned out better if he'd planned it himself.

Oh that's right.

He had.


	7. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6:**

Naina woke up with a start when the car stopped outside their house, realising that she had fallen asleep against Raj's shoulder on the way.

Sitting up straight, she apologised to him sheepishly. "Sorry about that, I didn't mean to use your shoulder as my pillow!'

"It's perfectly fine," Raj assured her, "I was asleep for most of the journey anyway, so I didn't even notice until the car was stopping."

Naina stretched as she got out of the car, her legs still sore from their long climb up the mountain. Everybody helped carry the picnic things back inside and then it was agreed that they should all have a shower before changing into their good clothes for the evening. Within half an hour they were all back in the lounge room, showered and dressed, complimenting each other on how well they looked in their traditional clothes. Since everybody was tired from the morning trip, they decided to have a quiet afternoon playing carom and cards and listening to music.

Navin and Tanu arranged it so that they were always on the same team, which meant that Raj and Naina would have to play together. There was much laughing and accusations of cheating as each side tried to win the games, and for once Navin and Tanisha didn't worry too much about their mission, happy to just enjoy the afternoon, and seeing that Raj and Naina were enjoying each others' company.

It was when it got dark that the real fun began, as they brought out the crackers and sparklers. While Mr and Mrs Ahluwalia were content to simply spin some sparklers, the young people set off cracker after cracker, sometimes even shooting rockets into the air. It was then that Navin and Tanu truly forgot about their mission in the excitement, laughing and enjoying themselves.

If they had paid a bit more attention, then they might have noticed the expression on Raj's face when he watched Naina laughing, her face lit up by the glow of a sparkler. Raj shook his head as if to clear it and turned away. He had realised that Naina was pretty the first time that he met her, but he hadn't been expecting how beautiful she would look by the light of the sparklers. He smiled to himself but realised that he shouldn't be thinking in this way, after all, she was his best friend's little sister.

It was then that a cracker going off too close next to Naina made her take a step backwards, stumbling into Raj. Reaching out, he steadied her, grabbing her arms while she regained her footing.

"Thanks," Naina told him with a smile that would've melted his heart if he hadn't already partially lost it.

Too distracted to notice any of this, Navin and Tanu weren't aware that the first part of their plan was already a success.

Slowly but surely, Raj was beginning to fall in love.

/

The next morning everybody woke up quite late, tired out from their late night. By the time they had woken up, Mr and Mrs Ahluwalia had already completed the traditional aartis of the day, including the ones that a wife does for her husband.

"So Ma, what did you get?" Naina asked her mother cheekily, and then oohed and aahhed as her mother showed off a new gold bracelet.

Naina cleared her throat, as if she was reminding somebody to do something, when nobody responded she nudged her brother and hissed "Navin!"

Suddenly remembering Naina's plan from a few days ago, Navin emerged from out of his daze, nodding at her.

"So Tanu, aren't you going to apply a tikka for me?" he asked her teasingly, knowing very well that it was something wives usually did for husbands on this day.

"Yes go on, Tanu!" Naina encouraged her, "You're going to be my Bhabhi sooner or later, you might as well start practicing now!"

Looking quite shy to be doing it, especially in front of so many people, Tanu took the aarti plate from Navin's mother and applied a tikka to Navin's forehead as the rest of them started clapping.

"Just one minute," Navin told her, and then dashed into his room, coming out with the small parcel that he had secretly bought with Naina when they went shopping on the first day. Grinning proudly, he presented the box to Tanu, who was quite overwhelmed with surprise. She hadn't realised that Navin could be so romantic as to have planned all this. Opening the box, she saw a beautiful gold chain with a heart shaped locket with both of their initials engraved on it.

"Oh Navin, it's beautiful!" she gushed, forgetting that the rest of his family were there and reaching out to hug him.

"Well I think that I should get at least a little bit of the credit!" Naina complained, "The idea might have been Navin's, but I helped choose it!"

"Thanks Naina!" Tanu told her gratefully, turning to hug her.

Raj sighed melodramatically, "So there you go, now everybody in the household has a tikka except me."

"Naina can apply one for you." Navin said just a little bit too quickly, then stifled the urge to hit himself in the forehead. He knew that this comment was taking it just a bit too far.

Raj's expression looked as if he had just choked on something, he turned so red. Naina just burst out laughing.

"Nice one, Bhaiyya," she told him, "Look how much you've embarrassed Raj." Then taking some pity on him, knowing how embarrassed he really was about his earlier joke turning out like this, she quickly applied a tikka to his forehead.

Raj turned even redder if that was possible. Seeing the shocked (and secretly delighted) looks on Navin and Tanisha's faces, Naina just shrugged.

"What?" she asked them in disbelief, "It doesn't mean that we're going to get married or anything." It was lucky that she didn't notice the looks on Navin and Tanu's faces right then. She paused then, addressing Raj, "But ha, I do want a gift in return for doing this."

"Well obviously I don't have anything on me, as I hadn't planned on this happening, but if you insist we can go and buy something later."

"Of course I insist!" Naina told him teasingly, relieved that at last the red colour was fading from Raj's face. "Nothing big of course, but you can at least buy me some new chappals!"

"You and your chappals…." Navin muttered under his breath, but it was more affectionate than annoyed. He couldn't believe how well this had all turned out, surely this was a sign of good things to come.

/

Later in the day after lunch, as promised, Raj took Naina shopping for chappals. When he had told her to get ready to go, she had reassured him that she was only joking and that he didn't really have to take her to get anything. It took Raj awhile to convince her that he was actually happy to go shopping with her, and only then would Naina leave the house with him. It was after a great deal of pushing from both Navin and Tanisha that they finally got out the door.

"It's my fault for making such a stupid comment this morning," Raj told her, "I should've known better."

"It's okay," Naina told him, "I know that it was just a joke, it was Navin's fault for making it even more embarrassing."

Raj nodded, "If there's one thing that Navin knows how to do, it's how to embarrass me terribly."

By now they had reached the shoe shop and were wandering aimlessly as Naina looked for a pair that she liked, trying not to choose anything that would be too expensive.

"Well however embarrassing it was for you, at least this morning turned out well for Navin and Tanu."

"Of course," Raj replied, "It's good that he found her, otherwise he would've kept flirting with every girl in sight. I'm betting that they'll get married within a few weeks of graduation. At least they will if Tanu's mother keeps pressuring Navin to propose."

Naina laughed at that, "It would be good if they did, but I'm afraid that Navin might have to wait. My parents are determined to get me married off before him, and I've got no plans to settle down until I've finished my MBA."

"Knowing Navin, he'll probably come up with some sneaky plan to get what he wants, he's a master at that." Raj joked.

Naina was laughing at this, agreeing with him when suddenly a thought entered her mind, as she glanced over at Raj inquiringly, she found that he had exactly the same look on his face.

"You're not thinking what I'm thinking, are you?" she asked him.

"Surely he couldn't be that sneaky, or that desperate…" Raj started to say.

"Oh don't ever underestimate my brother," Naina told him, "I'm sure that he would be more than willing to do anything it took."

"And Tanu… she's been known to come up with quite a few plans in her time, I'm sure this must have been her idea." Raj suddenly looked incredibly annoyed, thinking about how his feelings had been manipulated ever since he arrived here.

"Let's think about this carefully," Naina told him, "We don't want to jump to any conclusions. How did Navin ask you to come here?"

"Well first he made it sound like he'd be doing me a favour as I wouldn't have to go home, then he changed his mind and said I needed to come along because Tanu couldn't travel alone with him."

"Okay, well that's suspicious point number one," Naina said, her expression hardening even more, "Now how many times since then have they tried to get us on our own?"

"To be honest I don't remember," Raj replied, "But quite a few times at least."

"Suspicious point number two," Naina counted, "Now how many times have they made suspicious comments only to try and cover them up?"

"Too many to count." Raj said, obviously agreeing with Naina about what the conclusion was.

"Right, that's it, it's definitely a conspiracy." Naina told him, "Navin and Tanu are trying to get us married off."

She looked so annoyed about it, that Raj felt quite disheartened, although he wasn't quite ready to admit it.

"That's it, let's go and talk to them about this right now," she said angrily, "They have to know that they can't manipulate our feelings in this way."

"Wait," Raj told her, "First let's buy you some chappals, then let's go get some coffee and decide what to do. When they've spent so much time on their plan then perhaps we should spend some time on ours."

Naina brightened at this, obviously pleased that Raj seemed to have a plan of his own to make her brother and future sister-in-law pay for their interference.

/

Half an hour later they sat at a table with some coffee and Naina's new chappals, which had been more expensive than she wanted them to be, but which Raj had insisted on buying for her after he saw her looking at them and then hastily putting them down after seeing the price tag.

"So what are we going to do about them?" Naina asked him, as she stirred some sugar into her coffee, "Should we just come out and tell them their plan failed?"

"I've been thinking about that," Raj told her, "And I think that if they know it's failed they'll just come up with a new one."

"Good point." Naina told him, "So then what should we do?"

"Well…" Raj took a long pause before saying his next point, "What if we let them think that their plan was successful? I mean think about it, then Navin would at least stop trying to marry you off for the time being."

"You've got a point," Naina agreed, "But what are we supposed to do? Go and tell them that we've fallen in love?"

"No, that would be way too obvious." Raj told her, "What we need to do is to keep them guessing, we put on just enough of an act to let them think we've fallen in love without really knowing for sure."

"Mr Rajveer Singh Shekawat, that is one sneaky plan." Naina told him, "And I think I like it."

Pulling her chair around so that she was sitting next to him, they began to whisper about what their plan would be.

Navin and Tanisha had failed because they were too obvious, that was why they were found out.

Raj and Naina wouldn't repeat their mistakes.

One thing was for sure.

Navin and Tanu would never know what had hit them.


	8. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7:**

The key to their plan was subtlety. Raj summed it up in one line only; they would pretend to be in love while pretending not to be in love.

The first time he said this, Naina just stared at him with her eyebrows raised, not quite getting what he was trying to tell her. "Could you please repeat that again?"

Raj explained it patiently, having expected that Naina wouldn't get it the first time around since he was still struggling with it himself. "Well we'll pretend that we're in love, but while doing so we'll also be pretending that we're not in love around Navin and Tanu, so that if they ask us then we'll both deny it."

"So basically we're pretending to be pretending that we're not in love?"

"Exactly!" Raj said happily, "Brilliant, right?"

"This is going to give me a headache." Naina told him.

"It shouldn't be that hard," Raj told her, "We both just have to act in such a way that they believe their plan is working. Small things should do it, nothing too obvious."

Naina got a look of glee in her eyes at this, "I can't wait!" she told him, "It's going to be so fun to make fools of them, and at least this way Navin shouldn't feel the need to bother me about marriage for the next year or so."

"What about after that?" Raj asked her, "Sooner or later you're just going to have to come out and tell him you refuse to get married until your studies are finished."

Naina shrugged, "And you don't think that he'll just come up with a new plan then? I can't believe that he actually did this… well at least he had the good sense to choose you for my future life partner." She told Raj very matter of factly, looking him up and down.

Raj almost choked on his coffee. "What?" he spluttered when he had put it down.

"Well you're not that bad," Naina told him, "In fact if this whole thing hadn't been set up in the first place then…" she suddenly stopped talking, realising that maybe she'd said a bit too much.

Raj couldn't believe the way his heart had started beating faster at her words. Sure, he really liked Naina, but he wasn't going to be a part of any plan of Navin's. "I suppose I should be happy that he thought I was a good enough choice to set up with his sister."

"Of course you should be," Naina told him, "Except for the fact that he never once consulted you about whether you would actually like to be set up with me or not."

"True," Raj admitted, "For all he knew, I could've been in love with somebody else."

"So are you?" Naina asked, not sure why the answer mattered to her so much.

"No," Raj told her, "I'm too busy with my training to go around chasing girls."

"Good," Naina told him, feeling a strange sense of relief. "That will make our job much easier."

"Well then, it's time to begin planning our first move…"

/

They had stayed at the café for about an hour longer, planning out what they would do over the next two days and then making a brief plan for how they would continue it once Raj was back at the academy. Finally they left and headed for the house, pausing when they were halfway up the street to Naina and Navin's house.

"Okay, walk a bit closer to me." Raj told her, "I'm sure they'll be watching from the windows."

Naina shifted herself so that she was right next to him, practically sticking to his side.

"Not that close!" Raj told her, "We don't want to be too obvious, remember? It has to look natural."

Naina rolled her eyes and moved a small distance away, Raj nodded to let her know that it was perfect.

"Right then," Naina told him, "I'll just go and enrol in the drama club at college in order to pick up some tips."

"It's not quite that bad," Raj told her, "Now let's look as if we're really enjoying ourselves, we should start laughing."

"I can't just start laughing!" Naina told him, "Something needs to be funny."

"You really do need to go and join drama classes," Raj told her.

Seeing the frustrated look on his face, Naina burst out laughing and Raj grinned. "See?" he told her, "It's easier than you think. Now let's just stroll casually up to the house as if we have no idea how long we've been gone for."

They did exactly that, Naina swinging the plastic bag that held her new chappals in a very girly way as she continued giggling slightly.

Coming up to the gate, they found Navin and Tanu in the front yard, obviously waiting for them. Just as planned, they stopped and froze for a moment, as if feeling unsure about being found coming back together in this way.

"You two were gone for quite awhile." Navin said teasingly, "Did you buy the whole shoe store?"

"No bhaiyya, just one pair." Naina told him, "But it's a very nice pair!" and excitedly she sat down next to Tanu to show her the new pair of shoes.

Raj didn't have to fake the look of affection on his face as he watched Naina showing off her new sandals, he honestly found it very cute how excited she seemed to be about them. He didn't think that she was pretending this bit either, judging by how terrible her previous acting seemed to have been.

"So it took you this long to buy one pair of chappals?" Tanu asked them, "You've been gone almost three hours."

Naina scoffed at this, "Of course it didn't take three hours to buy one pair of chappals, I'm not that bad. We went for coffee afterwards."

"Oh really?" Navin asked, very interested. This time Raj noticed the look of delight that he exchanged with Tanu, it just confirmed that they definitely had planned all this.

"Oh yes," Naina continued, "Well we had a lot of things to talk about, there's so little time left before you all go back and…" Raj was very impressed with Naina's next bit of acting, maybe he had been wrong to judge her so early on. She looked up suddenly as if realising that she had said too much, and then seemed to become quite uncomfortable. "I'll just go show my new sandals to Ma!" Naina suddenly announced, and went inside.

"So you had a good afternoon?" Navin asked Raj, "I just hope you haven't been bored going shopping with Naina,"

"Oh no, I enjoyed it a lot." Raj told him, "Naina is fun to be with, so I always have a good time with her." And then pausing as if realising he had also said too much, he put a slightly guilty look on his face.

"I'll just go and put my things inside." He told them, and hurried up the steps as if eager to get away.

Navin and Tanu grinned at each other, "It looks like 'Operation Marriage' is on its way to being accomplished." Tanisha told him.

"Tanu, this was officially your best plan ever." Navin informed her, and gave her a high five.

In Naina's bedroom, Raj and Naina were also high fiveing each other.

"They completely bought it!" Naina exclaimed, "I can't believe how easy it was!"

"Don't get too overconfident," Raj warned her, "That was why Navin and Tanu slipped up. Otherwise we might never have realised."

"So tonight I'll make sure to sit next to you at dinner as we planned. We've got to give them as much hope as possible before they leave here. Just remember that my parents shouldn't decide that they think we're in love too," Naina told him strictly, "Otherwise before you know it we really will be getting married off."

Raj nodded, he respected Naina's desire to wait until her studies were finished before getting married. He didn't agree it was necessary to get the girl of the household married off before the boy, so he saw no reason why Navin and Tanu shouldn't get married before Naina did.

"Okay, so we're both ready to put our plan into action." Raj told her, "Your acting before was absolutely excellent."

Naina beamed at him, "Thank you very much, maybe I will join the drama society, they might find they've got a new star!"

Raj gave her a look as if to say 'I don't think you should take things quite that far'.

"So can we have a name for our mission?" Naina asked him, "You know, like in the movies. Army operations always have names."

"Is it really necessary?" Raj asked her, although he had to admit, it was quite a fun idea.

"Of course it is!" Naina told him, "What if we need to talk about what we're doing in code?"

"Okay fine, you can choose the name then." Raj told her.

"What about… 'Operation Confusion'?" Naina asked him.

"Why 'Operation Confusion'?" Raj asked her, having no idea why she'd picked the name.

"Well we're aiming to confuse Bhaiyya and Tanu," Naina informed him.

"Fine, 'Operation Confusion' it is." Raj told her, "Now let's get to work…"

/

That night when they gathered at the table for dinner, Naina sat next to Raj as planned, ignoring a perfectly empty seat beside Navin. For the rest of the meal she made sure that she was quite attentive to Raj, offering to pass him things and checking how he liked the food. The looks on Navin and Tanu's faces almost caused her to burst out laughing. However Naina maintained a perfectly innocent expression, as did Raj. She could tell that Navin was dying to say something, but was stopping himself, obviously worried that he might cause them to be suspicious.

'Too late, Bhaiyya.' Naina thought gleefully, 'We already know all about your plan.'

They continued the act after dinner, sitting down in the lounge room to play chess together and chat. At least this time they didn't have to act, as both of them genuinely did enjoy spending time with the other one. So it was no challenge at all to look like she was having fun while she was with Raj. The only challenge was to occasionally look shy or appear as if she was gazing at Raj secretly. Of course Naina tried to do this whenever either Navin or Tanu were looking in their direction. This part wasn't too hard either, after all, Raj was an attractive guy, so it wasn't exactly difficult to spend time gazing at him.

In fact Naina had to admire her brother's choice for a future husband for her, if this hadn't all been a set up…

No, she couldn't think like that, she had made a vow that she wouldn't get married until her studies were finished, and nothing was going to change her mind.

Especially not just because Raj had a charming smile, hair she wished she could run her hands through and the most beautiful eyes she had ever seen.

Naina decided that that was enough fake adoring glances for one night, it was all starting to affect her mind.

'Operation Confusion' had to be a success, her whole future depended on it.

So why was she the one who was suddenly becoming confused about what she wanted?


	9. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8:**

The next day was Navin, Tanu and Raj's last day in Nainital. They would be catching a bus just before lunch in order to get back to KMA on time since their training would be starting again early the next day.

Naina made sure to wake up early, and as she emerged from the bathroom drying her hair, she found Raj sneaking out of Navin's room. Quietly they both made their way to the kitchen, and Naina was relieved to find that her parents weren't awake yet.

"How'd it go?" she asked him. "Did Navin make any comments last night?"

"No," Raj told her, "But I could tell that he was dying to, it must have been really hard for him not to."

Naina grinned at this, just imagining Navin trying to stop himself from saying something, believing that it would give his plan away.

"So what are we putting into action for today?" she asked him.

"More of the same as yesterday," Raj told her, "Nothing too obvious, just enough to keep them guessing. Oh, one thing, try to hug me when we say goodbye at the bus stop."

"Of course," Naina shrugged, "I probably would've done that anyway even if we didn't have this plan."

"Okay, but just try and make the hug…"

"What? Romantic? Filmy? Full of love and longing?" As she spoke, Naina held out her arms, demonstrating various hugging styles along with full facial expressions.

Raj couldn't help bursting into laughter, which caused Naina to start giggling too.

"Naina, you're too much." He told her, still shaking with laughter.

"What's too much?" Navin asked, coming around the corner yawning.

Both of them immediately stopped laughing, nervous that he might have heard them discussing the plan. "Nothing, Navin, Naina was just joking." Raj told him.

"So what was the joke? Let me hear it too." Both of them relaxed when they saw by the look on Navin's face that he obviously felt he'd walked in on something between them.

"Sorry Bhaiyya, you just had to be here at the time." Naina informed him, "It won't be funny if I say it again." Then getting up from the kitchen table, she went to begin making chai.

"I'll go take a shower," Raj announced and walked out of the room.

"Be quick or your chai will go cold!" Naina called after him, Raj just vaguely waved a hand over his head to indicate he'd be back on time.

"Raj, where are you going? I was going to take a shower!" Navin called after him. There was no reply except the shutting of the bathroom door.

Twenty minutes later they all sat around the kitchen table, showered, dressed, and with mugs of steaming hot chai as they ate their breakfasts.

"I can't believe this is your last day here." Naina announced glumly. "Couldn't you have stayed at least until the afternoon?"

"Then we wouldn't have arrived back at KMA until nearly at lights out or even afterwards," Navin told her, "Try to understand, Naina, we would be far too tired for our drill tomorrow."

Naina grumbled slightly, but she did understand why they were leaving so early. "You know that today is the day for brothers and sisters in Diwali," she told him, "And I'm going to have my brother for only half the day."

Navin couldn't help thinking that today was the day when brothers went to visit their married sisters. If everything worked out well then maybe next Diwali he would be visiting Naina at Raj's house on this day.

"Don't worry," he told her with a grin, "I got you a present, just make sure that you do my tikka properly for me."

Naina wasn't just pretending to be upset, she really did love her brother an awful lot and she hadn't been able to spend much time with him this holiday due to both his plans and theirs.

"Now smile," Navin told her, "I want to see you happy on our last morning together."

Naina gave him a bright smile then, cheering herself up and they all ate their breakfast fairly happily.

Mrs Ahluwalia had already started cooking, preparing some food for the travellers to take with them on the bus. The young people decided that before it was time for the bus they might as well go for one last walk around Nainital.

They strolled around slowly, and despite the plan, Naina tried to keep close to both Navin and Tanu for most of the time, knowing that she would miss them once they were gone. It was only following a nod from Raj when they were heading back to the house that they began to lag slightly behind the others, walking more slowly. She fell back into step with him, letting the others go on ahead.

She could see both Navin and Tanu glance back over their shoulders, but neither said anything. A sure sign that they were happy Raj and Naina appeared to be trying to get some time alone. There were many things that Raj wanted to say, but in the end they walked mainly in silence. He realised that he would miss Naina once they were gone, in less than five days she had become an important part of his life. He was glad that they had the plan for fooling Navin and Tanu, because at least then they would still be in contact.

"Are you okay?" Raj finally asked Naina, "I know you must be feeling bad that Navin is going back again so quickly."

Naina nodded, "It's not just Navin, I can't believe that in less than five days I feel like I know both you and Tanu so incredibly well. I really am going to miss all three of you."

"Well if it makes you feel better, I'm fairly sure that all three of us will be missing you as well," Raj reassured her, "You know Navin talks about you a lot at the academy, he's always so proud of everything you do. But he'll never show any of the male cadets your photo, I think he's just a bit too much of an over protective older brother."

Naina laughed, "He can't be too protective if he set this whole thing up."

Raj gave her a very wry look, "Well that's different isn't it, he's planning to get us married." The two of them laughed together, and continued walking towards the house.

"That gives me an idea though," Naina told Raj suddenly, "What if I give you a photo of myself and you leave it somewhere where Navin will find it. That should make this whole thing a bit more fun."

Raj thought for a moment, "It's a good idea, but I think it's a bit early for it at the moment. I'll let you know when I think it's the right time and you can mail me one."

Naina nodded, "As it is, you've been taking a few photos of all of us while you're here. Just make sure that you gaze longingly at any that have me in them a few times a week."

Raj leaned over and ruffled Naina's hair affectionately, "You're really getting the hang of this." He told her, "We'll make you into a master strategist in no time at all."

Arriving back at the house, it was almost time for all of them to leave for the bus station. Naina and Navin's mother was already sniffing slightly, upset to be parting with her son again.

"Oh come on, Ma." Navin told her, giving her a comforting hug. No crying."

"Alright, come on Bhaiyya, it's time to do your tikka and get my present." Naina announced, trying not to sound quite so pleased about the present part as she actually was.

They completed the ritual quickly before Navin handed Naina a small packet, "Don't open it until I'm gone." He told her warningly.

"Thanks Bhaiyya!" Naina said happily and hugged him warmly, then feeling very mischievous she asked quite innocently, "Raj, should I do you a tikka too?"

The looks of panic on both Navin and Tanu's faces were one of the funniest things she'd seen in her entire life. Before Raj could reply, Navin quickly cut in. "Really Naina, I think yesterday's was enough. Don't try to get any more presents out of Raj." And he quickly tried to lead his friend away from there.

Raj grinned at Naina over his shoulder, she really was becoming quite brilliant at this.

Ten minutes later after Navin and Naina's mother had loaded them up with water bottles, food for the journey, and enough sweets to feed the whole of KMA, they all said farewell to Mr and Mrs Ahluwalia. Navin and Tanu both touched their feet together, with Raj following their action afterwards. Then the Ahluwalias hugged both Navin and Tanu, before patting Raj on the back as well.

"We were so happy to have you all here with us for Diwali," Mrs Ahluwalia told them, "Please do come and visit again next holiday as well."

It was almost time for their bus by this stage, so they all piled into a taxi along with Naina, headed for the bus station. She had insisted on accompanying them that far, and nobody had refused, all for their own reasons.

When they had stepped out of the taxi and Navin had paid for it, Naina did start to feel a little upset. She loved it when Navin came to visit but parting with him in the end was always difficult. This time it would be extra hard as she also had to say goodbye to Raj and Tanu, both of whom she'd grown to like a great deal.

"I can't believe you're going already!" she told all three of them, "When am I going to see you again?" Remembering their mission, she made sure that she glanced at Raj while she said this.

"Well we won't get holidays again for awhile, sis, but you're definitely coming to the Republic Day celebrations aren't you?"

Naina nodded, "You know that I wouldn't miss it for the world, Bhaiyya." And besides, just think, her and Raj together again at the academy, Naina's mind was already working fast, thinking of plans to trick her brother…

Raj was obviously also thinking exactly the same thing because he had a particularly sneaky look on his face as if he was planning already.

Naina couldn't wait, she knew that their future plans would all be fun to execute, but it couldn't possibly be as enjoyable as if her and Raj were together planning and carrying it out. He was likely to have a much better time for the next few months since he would actually be able to see the responses from Navin and Tanu to their actions. Naina would just have to rely on being told about it on the phone.

Finally it was time to go, and reluctantly the three friends prepared to leave Naina behind. Naina hugged Navin first, and then Tanu, and then watched as they both hurried into the bus, obviously hoping that if left alone together she and Raj might hug each other too, or perhaps (this was Tanu's hope at least) confess their undying love now that they were about to part.

"So this is it then," Naina told him, "I won't see you until January."

"Don't worry, Naina. It's only two months away." Raj told her, "And we've got lots to accomplish before then."

"Exactly!" Naina agreed with him, "We won't let them live in peace! We'll build up all their hopes only to break them!" She wondered if she was sounding a little bit too gleeful at this point.

Inside the bus, Navin and Tanu were both looking out the window at Raj and Naina while trying to pretend they weren't.

"Are they going to hug or not?" Tanu asked impatiently, "We haven't put in all this work for such a lame ending."

"I'm more curious about what it is they're actually talking about…" Navin said, wishing that he knew how to lip read. He had no idea what either of them could be grinning about so much considering that they were about to be separated. He would've liked them to be a bit sadder about it.

Naina tried to avoid looking at the bus window where she just knew Navin and Tanu must be observing them.

"So, uh, shall we hug now?" she asked him uncertainly.

"I think so," Raj told her, "It seems like the right time."

"But should I hug you or should you hug me?" Naina asked him, getting confused. "Which of them would be more romantic?"

Raj considered this question for a moment, "Well I think if I hugged you it would be more romantic, but it might be a little too forward of me. You should hug me instead."

Nodding, Naina stepped forward and put her arms around him, bumping her head against his chin in the process. "Sorry!" she exclaimed, "I don't do this type of thing too often!"

"It's perfectly okay," Raj told her, and put his arms around her, hugging her back. Naina convinced herself that they should keep hugging for awhile longer just to make a nice impression, and of course it didn't hurt that Raj's arms felt quite nice around her and she was quite enjoying the feel of his body against hers….

Okay, that was it, DEFINITELY enough hugging. Sometimes she didn't know where these thoughts came into her head from.

Stepping back reluctantly, she looked up at Raj. "So I guess I'll see you in January." She told him.

"I'll call you to let you know how they're both reacting once we reach KMA." Raj promised.

"Make sure you do that." Naina told him, then Raj climbed onto the bus and went to find his seat across the aisle from Navin and Tanisha.

Naina waited until the bus had pulled away and then went to catch a taxi home. With all of the planning and scheming that was going to start soon, she had better go and do some of her actual study now while she had the time.

/

Raj settled back into his seat with a smile on his face and pulled out a book to read, pretending not to notice that Navin and Tanu were both observing him closely while they pretended to read magazines. He couldn't believe what bad actors they both were. He thought that he and Naina were much better in that department and definitely much subtler, these two seemed like they'd come straight out of some Ekta Kapoor serial.

"So how did you both like your holiday?" Navin asked, "Was it a good Diwali?"

"Oh it was excellent!" Tanu told him, "I loved your family so much, Navin, they're all so sweet."

Raj just knew that they must have planned this conversation beforehand. Any moment now Navin would turn and ask him…

One….

Two…

"What about you, Raj? You don't regret coming with us, do you?"

"Of course not, it was much more fun than Diwali at my house. I think from now on I'll come home with you for all the holidays." Raj joked.

"Sorry if I didn't spend that much time with you," Navin apologised, "I hope you didn't mind getting left with Naina some of the time."

"No, Naina's a great girl!" Raj told him happily, and then made himself look embarrassed at how enthusiastic he had been, "I mean, we got along really well so it was no problem at all." He continued a little more calmly.

Once again, Raj pretended not to notice the smiles on Navin and Tanu's faces which they both quickly hid. He was going to have to be incredibly careful from here on in to make sure they didn't figure out what's going on. It was going to take a lot of planning and scheming, and some brilliant acting.

But with a partner like Naina, why should he be worried?


	10. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9:**

Something was definitely going on.

They had only been back at the academy for three days and already it was driving Aalekh crazy. If he didn't find out soon, then he was going to start threatening somebody until they gave in and told him because everything was just far too… strange.

The first thing was that Navin and Tanu seemed far too happy. Sure, they were normally happy, but this time they were just TOO happy. And they both seemed to be even happier whenever they saw Raj. Not only that, but whenever they were in the same room with Raj, they both seemed to be examining him very closely while pretending not to, and Raj, well it was perfectly obvious to Aalekh that he was pretending not to notice how strange Navin and Tanu were being.

He must be pretending, because it would've been impossible for him not to notice them both peering over the tops of their books at him while they were all in the library and then whispering behind the covers.

To top it all off, both Navin and Tanu hadn't stopped talking about Naina since they arrived back. Sure, Aalekh liked Naina, and he was very happy to hear about her and what she'd done with them, and how her college was going. But not every single possible moment that Navin, Tanu and Raj were in the same room. And the strangest thing was that Raj didn't seem to be bothered, instead he would listen with a rather dreamy look on his face, and just nod vaguely.

In fact Navin and Tanu weren't the only ones that were behaving weirdly, even Raj was. He kept sneaking off to make phone calls at the oddest times, and would then cover the receiver and his mouth with one hand while talking, his eyes darting up and down the corridor as if checking to see if anybody was coming. The one time that Navin had walked past him, Raj had burst into a fit of coughing that hadn't ended until Navin was out of range of hearing and then quite quickly hung up.

Aalekh was sick of it. Something was going on, and if they weren't going to stop it, then they should tell him what it was.

It was causing him way too much tension.

Deciding that out of the three of them, Raj was the one who was still acting the most normal, Aalekh approached him first.

"Oy Nautanki," he said, cornering Raj in the gym when he was on his own, "Kya ho raha hai?"

Raj froze as if he'd been caught doing something especially naughty. "What are you talking about, Aalekh?" he asked, trying to act innocent. "Kya ho raha hai with what?"

"You know exactly what I'm talking about," Aalekh told him, folding his arms across his chest, "Did your brain get fried along with the crackers this Diwali? You, Navin and Tanu have all gone mental."

"I have noooooooo idea what you're talking about," Raj replied, starting to look very uncomfortable. "In fact, I've just realised that I'm feeling unwell. I'm going to go and see the Doctor right now, I might even need to stay in the infirmary overnight." And then he practically ran out of the room.

Aalekh frowned, Raj might have escaped this time, but how long could he run for?

For the next few days, whenever Aalekh saw Raj, Raj suddenly realised that he had somewhere else that he needed to be urgently and would take off so quickly that there was no time for Aalekh to follow him. Deciding to give up for the time being, Aalekh confronted Navin and Tanu.

Sitting down opposite them at lunch time (out of the corner of his eye he could see Raj enter the mess and choose a table as far away as possible and near the door for a quick getaway), Aalekh decided to come right out and say it.

"What's going on?" he asked them, "I've had enough of you both acting weird, now spill, what's going on with you and Raj?"

They both gaped at him, as if he had surprisingly uncovered a huge conspiracy that they had been making. Aalekh thought that they looked quite funny with their mouths open staring at him.

"Oh wow, look at the time." Navin suddenly said, "I've just realised we're late to uh…. Do something… that's right, we've got to go and meet one of our teachers about one of our classes, and some homework… Let's go Tanu!" And grabbing her hand, he practically dragged her out of the mess, leaving both of their meals half uneaten. It only took Aalekh to glance in Raj's direction for him to decide that he was no longer hungry and to also bolt in the direction of the door as fast as he possibly could.

Aalekh had only one more option.

He would have to ask Naina.

/

Making sure that none of the suspiciously acting people were around, Aalekh went to the phone to make his call. Actually this was pretty easy considering that all of them seemed to be attempting to avoid him at the moment.

Dialling Navin's home number, Aalekh just hoped that Naina was the one who would pick up. The last thing he needed at the moment was to have to explain to her parents exactly why he was calling, he could just imagine it. 'Yes Aunty, I'm calling to ask Naina whether her brother has lost his mind, Raj and Tanu too.'

All Aalekh hoped was that it hadn't been something contagious from the Ahluwalia household. If Naina had been affected by the same strange disease, then he was doomed.

The phone was picked up quite quickly, and Aalekh was relieved to hear Naina's voice on the other end of the line.

"Apun hai," he told her, "What's going on?"

"Aalekh!" Naina exclaimed, "How are you? Did Navin give you some of the laddoos that Ma sent? I missed you at Diwali, I wish you'd come home with Navin, we had such fun and…"

Aalekh was glad that Naina was so happy to hear from him, but he really needed this mystery solved right now.

"I'm fine, Naina." He told her, "But Navin and Tanu aren't and neither is Raj."

"What do you mean?" Naina asked him, confused and a little worried too. "They were perfectly fine when they left here. And Raj hasn't mentioned anything about…"

Naina abruptly shut up, realising that she'd said way too much.

"They're not sick, Naina." Aalekh told her, "Unless they're sick in the head. They're all acting extremely weird and I want to know what's going on. And what's this you're saying, that you've been talking with Raj?"

"Uh, actually Aalekh, I just remembered I left the iron on. I better go turn it off or it will burn down the house."

"Stop right there!" Aalekh yelled down the phone. "Either you explain what's going on to me or your nautanki brother is going to be in a very bad state very soon!"

Naina sighed, she should've known that it was pointless trying to hide anything from Aalekh, no matter what he noticed _everything_.

"Alright, Aalekh, fine." Naina gave in, "But first I have to swear you to secrecy. You have to promise that you won't reveal any of this to Navin or Tanu."

Half an hour later Naina had finished a very long explanation of what Navin and Tanu had done, how her and Raj had found out, and what they were now doing to try and spoil their plans.

"So what do you say, Aalekh?" Naina asked him, "Are you going to help us out? Will you be part of 'Operation Confusion'?"

" 'Operation Confustion'?" Aaalekh asked, "What's that?"

"It's the name of our mission to confuse Navin and Tanu!" Naina explained to him as if it should've been obvious. "I'm sure that they've got a name for their mission too… but I'm also sure that ours is much better."

Aalekh was still trying to work out all of the information in his head, it had all been way too complicated.

"Alright, Naina. I'll help you in this 'Operation Confustion'," Aalekh told her, "But it would be a lot easier if that daarpoke Raj would stop running away from me all the time."

"Just go and catch him and tell him that you know," Naina said impatiently, "It can't be that hard."

And so half an hour later, Aalekh was sitting outside the gym, waiting for Raj to come out. When he finally did, Aalekh leapt up immediately, not prepared to let him escape this time.

"Oh, Aalekh," Raj exclaimed, a bit shocked that he had apparently appeared out of nowhere. "So nice to see you, I've just got to uh, go and do something that will put me into detention."

Aalekh raised his eyebrows, he was sure that Raj must have that the wrong way around.

"Tension mat le, Raj." Aalekh told him, "I know everything."

"About what?" Raj asked, becoming more nervous.

"About 'Operation Confustion'," Aaalekh replied, "I was sick of you, Navin and Tanu always running away when I tried to ask you, so I called Naina to ask her instead."

"And she told you?" Raj practically yelled, shocked. "I thought that this was a secret plan!"

"Well it still is secret." Aalekh said, not understanding why Raj was so upset, "Only now I know the secret too."

Raj calmed down, realising that he was overreacting. Aalekh would have uncovered the truth eventually, and Naina might have just won them a key ally.

"So are you going to help us?" he asked.

"Yes," Aalekh replied, "But I'm not quite sure what it is that I should be helping with. The whole point of this is that you and Naina don't get married, right? So why do you actually have such a problem with getting married to her in the first place?"

Raj flushed at his comment. "I don't have any problem with getting married to Naina," he told Aalekh, and then turned even redder, realising what he had just said, "I mean, I'm not saying that I don't want to marry her, I mean, no that's not what I mean, what I really mean is, there's absolutely nothing wrong with Naina. Anybody would want to marry her!"

"So what's the problem then?" Aalekh asked, wanting to get to the bottom of it before he started interfering.

"Naina doesn't want to get married until she's finished her studies," Raj replied, "And I respect that, if we can make this plan work then at least she'll be free from pressure for awhile longer."

Aalekh had to agree that this was a good point, he knew how important freedom was, and if somebody was trying to cage Naina in or force her to do what she didn't want to, then she had every right to refuse.

"I'll help you," he promised Raj, "Just let me know when there's anything to do."

"Excellent!" Raj said, brightening up now that he knew Aalekh was on their side, "Now we'll really show Navin and Tanu!"

Quite honestly he was relieved that Aalekh now knew the truth, at least he wouldn't have to keep hiding every time that he saw him, he would finally be able to eat a meal in peace.

/

Meanwhile, Navin and Tanu were having the exact opposite problem.

"Navin, we can't keep running away every time we see Aalekh," Tanu told him, as they sat near the lake, figuring that there was no way their friend would ever come there to find them. "Sooner or later we've got to figure out what to do about him."

Navin nodded, for one thing, he hadn't been able to eat properly for two days now since every time Aalekh entered the mess he was forced to run away. "Tanu, this might sound crazy," he began, "But what if we told Aalekh the truth?"

Tanisha stared at Navin, "You're right," she told him, "That does sound crazy."

"Just listen for a minute," Navin said, the idea beginning to take form even more suddenly. "Aalekh likes Naina, in fact he almost thinks of her as a little sister. Surely he would want her to get married to the right type of guy, a guy like Raj."

"You could be right," Tanu admitted, biting her lip while she thought about it, "But what guarantee is there that Aalekh will agree with us?"

"Well what choice do we have?" Navin asked her, "Or are you planning to keep running away every time we see him until we graduate, and somehow still trap… uh, convince Raj."

"Fine," Tanisha said, "But this was your idea. If it goes wrong then it's your fault not mine."

/

While relaxing outside, Aalekh was surprised to see Navin and Tanisha approaching him. For a moment he thought maybe he should run away to pay them back, but it was too good of an opportunity, maybe he could get some information out of them for Naina and Raj.

"Hi Aalekh," Navin greeted him, "Look I know we've been acting strangely, but we want to confess everything to you, and well, ask for your help too."

"Apun ka help?" Aalekh asked them in disbelief, surely this couldn't be happening.

"Yes, exactly. Actually it's for Naina's sake, for the sake of her future. You see it's like this…"

Of course when Navin explained it, he didn't include the bit where he had decided on this mission because he wanted to get married himself.

The wheels were turning in Aalekh's mind as he realised that he was now in a very good position. Both sides of this game had asked for his help, and both were trusting him.

"So will you help us?" Navin finally asked him, "You know it's the best for Naina. I've always worried about her settling down and I can't think of any guy better for her than Raj."

Aalekh was silent, genuinely thinking about what he should do. He decided that in this situation his first loyalty should be to Naina, she shouldn't be pushed into a marriage that she didn't want. However Navin was right, even Aalekh couldn't think of any guy that would be better for Naina than Raj. And by Raj's reactions earlier, Aalekh was sure that if he hadn't fallen for Naina already, he would very soon.

Very quickly, Aalekh made his decision.

"Of course I'll help you," he told Navin and Tanu, "Anything for Naina's happiness."

"Excellent!" Tanu told him, "So the team of 'Operation Marriage' now has a new member!"

" 'Operation Marriage'?" Aalekh asked them in disbelief.

"Yes, it's the name of our mission." Tanisha informed him.

"Tanu made the name up." Navin added rather quickly.

"Ha… 'Operation Marriage' it is…" Aalekh said, privately thinking that neither Navin and Tanu nor Naina and Raj chose very imaginative names for their missions.

Navin and Tanu left then, not wanting Raj to see them with Aalekh just in case he became suspicious.

Aalekh thought about everything that had happened that day, and that he was now officially part of two separate missions, with both sides not knowing that he was going to be working with the other one too.

Aalekh had his own agenda, his own mission. He was going to make sure that things ended up for the best no matter what. And he was willing to be a double agent to achieve it.

It was time for 'Operation Golmaal' to begin.


	11. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10:**

"Hello," Naina answered the phone quietly, glad that it was cordless so that she could take it into her room if it was who she thought it was.

"Hey, it's me." Raj's voice on the other end of the line instantly made her happy, it was so hard to only be hearing about the plans while he was on the other end carrying them out.

"Hey 'me'," Naina replied happily, "How's it going over there? Any progress?"

"Well the news is that Aalekh has allowed himself to be recruited by the other side," Raj told her, "He'll be doing our work from the inside."

"That's excellent!" Naina exclaimed, "Isn't it just like a spy novel? He's like some sort of secret agent deep inside enemy territory."

"Uh… I suppose so." Raj told her, thinking that Naina was getting just a little too excited about it when nothing had actually happened yet, "Anyway we'll see what happens, but Navin and Tanu have been so happy lately, I think they definitely believe something is going on between us."

"Oooo, wonderful, so what are we doing to fuel that belief?"

"Well," Raj told her, "According to my observations of their schedule, Navin and Tanu should be walking down this corridor very soon and the moment they see me on the phone they'll think it's you, and when I hang up quickly just as they approach me, it will be confirmed."

"You really are a brilliant strategist," Naina told him, "What do you think you should say to me while they can hear you? You could say 'I really miss you'! I think they both might have heart attacks out of joy."

"I'm not sure," Raj told her, "That might be a bit too obvious if I know they're there. Remember that we've got to be subtle about this."

"Oh come on," Naina told him, "Just pretend you don't know that they're there until they approach you. In fact don't even hang up until they tap you on the shoulder or actually walk past. Is it such a hard thing to actually say? I'm happy to tell you." She paused, feeling a bit shy before she actually said it, "I miss you. There, that wasn't so hard was it?"

Raj wasn't sure why it was that his heart started beating so much faster on hearing that, but he took a deep breath in, trying to control it. "You know I really do miss you." He told her, "I wish that you were here…"

It was right then that somebody tapped Raj on the shoulder. He had gotten so involved in the conversation that he had forgotten the purpose that he had called for. He was so startled that he jumped and almost dropped the phone. Standing in front of him were Navin and Tanu with identical, knowing smirks on their faces. Raj was sure that they could see the look of panic cross his face, it was one that he didn't have to fake, but he quickly recovered.

"Yeah, I wish you were here, Dad, I missed seeing you at Diwali. Yes, give my love to Ma, okay, bye." And without waiting for a reply he quickly hung up, hoping that Naina had understood.

On the other end of the line, Naina made a face at the phone. Navin and Tanu must have turned up at exactly that moment. The only thing that she wasn't sure about was whether Raj had told her he missed her because he had seen them, or because he genuinely did.

Meanwhile back in KMA, Raj faced Navin and Tanu with a slightly guilty look on his face, hoping that they hadn't heard any of the earlier conversation.

"So Raj, who were you talking to?" Navin asked him.

"Isn't it obvious? My dad." Raj replied, "They really missed me at Diwali so they were calling to ask me how my holidays were."

"But Raj, I thought that they called to ask that the day after we arrived back?" Navin asked with an innocent look on his face, "And when was the last time you told your father that you missed him and you wished he was here?"

"Uh, because I'm running low on pocket money?" Raj offered the excuse, knowing that neither of them would believe it. "Sorry guys, I just remembered I've got to go meet Aalekh to help him with his English."

Then he quickly rushed away, a mischievous smile on his face. It had gone absolutely perfectly.

"He was soooooooooooooo talking to Naina." Tanu remarked, "That's so exciting, he was saying that he missed her, that means that things have gone further than we thought!"

"As long as it really was Naina," Navin said with a frown, "What will we do if he's already got some other secret girlfriend somewhere?"

"No way," Tanu told him, "Raj and a secret girlfriend? Never. Anyway, when does he ever get the opportunity to meet girls?"

Navin shrugged, it was true. That was the whole reason why they had selected Raj in the first place.

That meant it was definite, their plan was working.

/

Raj was reading one of his textbooks quite happily in the sun outside when Aalekh approached him. Expecting that he might have some news, Raj closed the book and waited, but Aalekh's next words shocked him.

"So how do you really feel about Naina?" Aalekh asked.

Raj just gaped, open mouthed. "Why are you asking that?" he told Aalekh nervously, "I thought you knew what was going on… I mean this is all just a drama… ek natak."

"I know that it's a natak… Nautanki," Aalekh told him, "Navin has sent me to find out how you really feel about Naina."

"Oh," Raj replied, feeling very relieved, the last thing he needed at the moment was to have to think about what his feelings really were. "And how does he think that you're going to manage to do that?"

"Well, I think that Navin thinks I'm sneaky and can get the information out of you," Aalekh replied. Raj had to admit that Navin had made a good choice, it was hard for anyone to refuse to tell Aalekh anything.

"Hmmm, well in that case I'm going to have to think of something to tell you. The only point is, exactly what should I allow Navin to think…"

"That's your choice," Aalekh shrugged, and lay down on the ground, closing his eyes against the sun. "Just hurry up and tell me something so that I can go back and report it to them."

"I think I shouldn't tell you for awhile," Raj said thoughtfully, "That way it will be more realistic."

"Fine," Aalekh didn't bother to get up, he was quite happy lying in the sun, the only thing that would've made it better was a bottle of alcohol.

"Aren't you going to help me think of anything?" Raj asked him, "This is quite important."

"Go ask Naina instead," Aalekh advised, "This damn mission was your idea in the first place."

Raj thought about it, but he couldn't bother Naina with every little thing, she was back at college now too.

"Alright," he told Aalekh, "Then just tell them that the only thing you could get out of me was that I'm really missing Naina and I wish that I'd had more time with her in Nainital. That should keep them happy while still being realistic."

Without moving, Aalekh nodded. "Good answer."

"So aren't you going to go and tell them?" Raj asked, wanting to know the results right then.

"Let me have a sleep first, then I'll go tell them."

Sighing, Raj went back to his textbook. Aalekh was a very unreliable partner.

He really was missing Naina. She had always been so enthusiastic about the plan.

Opening his eyes just a little against the sunlight, Aalekh observed Raj.

"You're not making it up, are you?" he asked, "You really do miss her."

"Of course I miss her," Raj replied, and then added quite suddenly, "Don't you?"

"Definitely." Aalekh replied, "Naina never judged me, in fact she always understood my funda in life well."

"She is a very special girl, isn't she?" Raj replied, with a faraway look in his eyes.

"Why do you think it is that Navin chose you?" Aalekh asked him, "He could've asked anyone to do this. Most of them probably would've given in much easier than you."

Raj had thought about this question a lot since they found out about Navin and Tanu's plan. He was honestly not sure that he knew the reason. "Maybe it's because we're room mates, or because we're best friends. Maybe he just didn't think it would work out with anybody else here."

"Or maybe he just thought you were the perfect choice." Aalekh said, before getting off the ground and brushing his pants and shirt off.

"Where are you going?" Raj asked, feeling as if he would like to keep discussing this some more.

"To go and tell them how much you're missing Naina." Aalekh said in a deadpan voice. He turned to go, thankful that Raj couldn't see the glee in his eyes. It wouldn't take long at all to turn everything around. Any day now, Raj was going to be asking for Aalekh's help for an altogether different mission.

/

"He misses her a lot and wishes he had had more time with her." Aalekh reported to Navin and Tanu, "And he thinks she's a very special girl." All of this was delivered in a serious tone of voice as Aalekh kept his face perfectly straight. He probably shouldn't have said the last bit since Raj hadn't given him permission, but he just hadn't been able to resist.

The expression on Navin's face was ecstatic, but Tanisha just looked disappointed.

"That's it?" she asked, "He didn't say anything else? About being in love with her?"

"No," Aalekh told her, "What did you think, that he was going to confess all of his feelings to me right then?"

"Well…. Yes." Tanisha replied, "Why not?"

"You can't be so impatient, Tanu." Navin told her, "We don't even know if they've actually fallen in love yet."

"Well if they haven't then they should!" Tanu exclaimed, "I fell in love with you in about two days."

"Yes but Tanu, you're a lot more filmy than they are." Navin exclaimed very patiently, "You were bound to fall in love very quickly."

"What exactly are you trying to say, Navin?" Tanisha asked, glaring at him. "That my love for you is filmy? Are you insulting me?" 

"No, not at all, Tanu! You're misunderstanding me! I swear I didn't mean that…. You know that I love you just the way you are!"

Watching Navin try to make up to Tanu, Aalekh decided that he should get out of there as quickly as possible. He didn't need this extra drama in his life.

/

Aalekh's job was almost done for the day but there was one more thing that he had to do. Before he took his plan to the next level, he had to be sure of what Naina's feelings were and that he really was doing the right thing. If it was just Raj that liked her, and she actually had no feelings for him, then Aalekh would stop his plan immediately.

Raj was just on his way to the phone to call Naina when Aalekh stopped him.

"Going to tell Naina what's going on?" he asked.

Raj nodded, a smile on his face.

"I'll call her instead," Aalekh told him, "I'd like to have a proper chat with her."

"But I was going to..." Raj started to say, trying to think of a reason why he should be calling Naina instead.

"You can call her next time, go and sit somewhere where Navin and Tanu can see you and look lovesick."

Looking extremely disappointed but trying to hide it, Raj left from there, and Aalekh moved towards the phone.

He dialled Naina's number and waited for her to pick up the phone.

"Hey!" she answered as soon as she picked up, "How's it all going? Any progress?"

"How did you know it was me?" Aalekh answered, "What if it was Navin calling, you would've spoiled the whole plan."

"Oh," Naina replied, and Aalekh was sure he could hear some disappointment in her voice. "It's you, Aalekh, I thought it was Raj, he was due to call this afternoon."

"Yeah I told him I'd call instead." Aalekh told her, "Since I can give you a better report on Navin and Tanu's reactions."

"So he's not going to call at all?" Naina asked, sounding a bit annoyed. "What's wrong with both of you calling?"

"Arre baba, if you're that upset then I'll go and tell him to call you after this." Aalekh was secretly very pleased, it was exactly the response he had been hoping for.

"Who said I was upset?" Naina asked, a little defensive, "Of course I'm not upset. I just think that when somebody says they're going to call then they should."

"Well if we're finished talking about whether or not Raj should call you, then can I report to you on the progress of the mission?"

"Of course," Naina told him, "Report away." But she still sounded annoyed.

Quickly Aalekh updated her on the progress of the operation, telling Naina how Navin and Tanisha had tried to find out about Raj's feelings and what Raj's response was.

"He said I was a very special girl?" Naina asked Aalekh, sounding a bit breathless.

"Yes," Aalekh replied, "But I'm not sure I was supposed to tell them that bit."

"Oh…" Naina said, and the silence stretched on as she thought about it.

"Accha Naina, if Navin and Tanisha ask me to find out about your feelings then what should I tell them?"

"What?" Naina asked him, obviously not having been listening, "Oh, ah, I don't know. Tell them I'm really glad that they brought him home for Diwali."

"Bas?" Aalekh asked in disbelief, "I thought you wanted them to think you were falling in love."

"Of course we do, but we're also trying to not be that obvious about it." Naina replied, "Just tell them that I asked you about Raj and wanted to know how he was doing. Tell them it sounded like I missed him a lot."

Aalekh thought this would be easy, he wouldn't have to lie at all…

"Okay Naina, I'll go now. Should I tell Raj to call you?"

"He can do whatever he likes." Naina replied, still annoyed that he hadn't bothered to call her but had gotten Aalekh to do it instead.

"Alright, bye."

"Bye."

Hanging up, Aalekh headed around the corner to find Raj lurking there.

"So how did it go?" Raj asked him, "Any new plans?"

"No, but madam was very annoyed that you hadn't called." Aalekh replied, "You should probably go and do it now if you don't want her sulking."

Raj brightened up at this, obviously happy that Naina had missed him calling. "Alright, I'll go and call her back now, we can do some more planning!" And he hurried off towards the phone.

Aalekh strolled down the corridor whistling, only to bump into Yudi who was walking by with his usual confused expression.

"What's up chief, you look very happy today?" Yudi asked him. "Did you get some new daru or something?"

"Yudi… daru isn't everything, I'm in the middle of doing, what is it called… a good deed."

And Aalekh walked off smiling.


	12. Chapter 11

Chapter 11:

A month had passed since Diwali and all of the groups had continued their plans. Well, two groups and one lone agent had continued with their plans.

Navin and Tanu kept observing Raj, trying to work out exactly what his feelings were. They didn't have to do much work themselves, as they usually sent Aalekh to find things out for them.

Aalekh was happy to be involved, the only thing was that it took up a bit too much of his time because either he was listening to Navin and Tanisha's plans and carrying them out, or he was listening to Raj and Naina's plans and carrying them out. Finally Aalekh had had enough, he wanted a day off. Then he would see exactly how well both teams did without his help.

Aalekh began the day by announcing separately to Raj and to Navin and Tanu, that he was taking a day off. Raj was fine with it, he hadn't had anything big planned for the day anyway, it was Navin and Tanu who had the problem.

"But what if it's something really important?" Tanu asked, "I mean of course we wouldn't bother you if it wasn't, but what if…"

"Then you find some way to manage it," Aalekh told her, "Today is my chutti, and I'm going to enjoy it."

It was Navin and Tanu's bad luck that on this day, something important actually did happen… because while Raj hadn't had anything planned, Naina certainly did.

/

They were all sitting in the mess having their breakfast and morning chai, when an orderly came to fetch Raj.

"Cadet Shekawat, you have a phone call."

"Who from?" Raj asked, if it was his parents then he was hoping he could somehow bribe the orderly to convince them he was busy…

"From your girlfriend." The orderly replied, loud enough for almost every person in the mess to hear.

Raj sat there for a minute, stunned. Finally he put his mug down on the table, straightened his uniform and with as much dignity as possible stood up, pretending that he didn't notice that every single person in the room was now staring at him.

"I'll just, uh, go to the phone." He told Navin and Tanu, both of whose mouths had dropped open. Then he walked out of the room as quickly as possible, trying to ignore the stares he was getting, although he thought he spotted Aalekh smirking out of the corner of his eye.

As soon as Raj had left the room, both Navin and Tanu scrambled out of their chairs to get to Aalekh. Navin was in such a hurry that he actually tipped his over. The rest of the room also erupted in gossip, nobody could believe that the very serious and studious Rajveer Singh Shekawat actually had a girlfriend.

"Aalekh, you've got to…" Navin began saying.

"No," Aalekh replied simply and kept drinking his chai, "Today I'm on holiday. Wait for tomorrow."

"Not even for Naina's sake?" Navin asked, trying to use an emotional approach to get him to do it. "What if it's some other girl, do you want her to get her heart broken?"

Aalekh gave Navin a look that said that emotional blackmail was not going to work on him.

"Not even for the sake of Daru?" Tanu asked him, "We'll buy you a bottle! In fact we'll buy you two! Or even three!"

Navin just nodded, agreeing with Tanu.

For a moment, Aalekh was tempted, for three bottles of Daru… But no, he had made a decision that he was on holiday. And he was thinking that it would be far more fun to see how they handled it without him.

"Sorry," he told them, "But no. Either find out yourself or find somebody else who will."

/

Meanwhile Raj had rushed down the hallway towards the phone, wanting to get there before anybody decided to follow him.

"Naina?" he asked, not able to think of anybody else who might be calling as his girlfriend.

"Hi darling! How did you like my surprise?" Naina asked him, mischief in her voice.

"What are you doing, Naina? We hadn't planned this!" Raj asked her, still slightly embarrassed by the way everybody had stared at him in the mess earlier.

"I know," Naina replied, "But I was bored, and we haven't planned anything big for over a week now. You haven't even called me for three days!"

Raj sighed, it was really impossible to be angry with her. "Naina, you do know that I'm here for army training, right? As much as I want to call you every day, I just don't have time and the whole point of our plan is that big things aren't meant to happen all the time."

"I haven't ruined anything have I?" Naina asked worriedly, "But honestly, it would've been worth it to see the looks on Navin and Tanu's faces!"

Raj started laughing, he had to admit that it had been worth it. "They looked like a couple of fish that had been taken out of the water." He told Naina. "Their mouths just kept opening and closing."

Naina started giggling as well, imagining the scene.

"And you know what the best bit is?" Raj asked her, "Aalekh has decided to take the day off from all schemes today, so they're going to try and figure out who called me on their own!"

"Awesome!" Naina replied, "I just wish I was there to see it, there's still a month to go until I come for Republic Day, we're going to have to start planning it soon."

"Definitely," Raj agreed, "It should be absolutely perfect. But for now, tell me how are you doing? How are your studies going?"

"Well, it's all rather easy at the moment." Naina told him, "I've already finished the assignment that's due on Friday, which is probably why I was so tempted to make some masti."

"And that guy hasn't bothered you again has he?" Raj asked her, not able to believe that he hadn't thought to ask her before now.

"No, I think he's decided to keep away from me now that he knows I'm taken, or it could be that I run away whenever I see him."

"Good," Raj replied, "Well your call this morning is certainly going to make things more interesting. I can't wait to see how Navin and Tanu deal with it."

"Well make sure that you keep me updated, I'll be waiting to hear from you."

"Of course I will," Raj told her, "I'll try to call you tomorrow with the news."

"Excellent!" Naina told him, "I'll talk to you then!"

She hung up with a huge smile on her face, very pleased with herself.

/

Meanwhile, Navin and Tanisha were having serious problems finding somebody to help them out. They had wanted to ask Abhimanyu, but he and Nandini had left quickly after breakfast, wanting to spend some time alone in their free period. Next they had tried Ali.

"No," Ali had told them very firmly, "It is Rajveerbhai's personal business who his girlfriend is, and it's against my principles to interfere in other people's personal affairs."

Tanu was tempted to roll her eyes at this, why did he have to be so damn principled all the time?

Next they tried Pooja, but she wasn't bothered at all. "Why are you worried about other people's connections when you've already made your own?" she asked them, "Let him have his personal talk time!"

Navin suspected that she might have decided to say this at least partly to impress Ali.

It was then that they were left with their last option… Yudi. But he wasn't such a bad option after all.

"Yudi, how would you like to do something for us?" Navin asked him.

"Well Chief, first that would depend on what that something was, and secondly, what I would gain from it." Yudi told them, leaning back in his chair with his arms crossed.

"Find out from Raj who his girlfriend is, and we'll do whatever you want." Tanu told him, before realising that she sounded slightly desperate.

"Why are you so interested and why don't you just ask him yourself?" Yudi asked, finding all of this highly suspicious.

"Because he's not going to tell us!" Navin said, "Especially not if it is who we think it is."

"Alright, so if I did this for you, then what would you do for me?" Yudi asked, "I've got to get something if I'm going to risk Raj's anger."

"I solemnly promise you, Yudi, that if you do this for us, I will teach you everything you need to know to be able to get a girlfriend." Navin told him, holding his hand against his heart.

"Even I'll help!" Tanu chimed in, "Shalini is my good friend, I'm sure I could get you some useful information."

"You know, that's a very useful offer," Yudi told them, "I'll do my best."

"Excellent!" Navin exclaimed, "You won't regret this, Yudi!"

And so thirty minutes later, Yudi was approaching Raj. He tried to remember all of the advice that Navin and Tanisha had given him on how to approach this, but there had honestly been way too much of it, so Yudi just decided that he was going to give it his best shot.

"Hey Raj," he said as casually as possible, "What's up?"

"Nothing much, just doing some study." Raj told him, and then looked at Yudi expectantly as if knowing that he had come to say something else.

"So I heard you got a call from your girlfriend this morning," Yudi continued, "I didn't even know you had a girlfriend."

"I knew it was going to be about this!" Raj told him, "Do you know that you're the fifth person to ask me about this today? And just like the rest of them I'm going to tell you that I've got absolutely nothing to say about it." And then Raj grinned as if he was having the time of his life refusing Yudi.

"So that means it was your girlfriend that called?" Yudi asked him.

"Well… it was a girl… and she is my friend, so you can think whatever you want about that." Raj told him.

"So what's her name?" Yudi asked, not quite ready to give up yet. After all, the advice that Navin and Tanu had promised to give him could be very valuable.

Suddenly Raj's eyes narrowed as he seemed to have realised something. "Spill it, Yudi." He told his friend, "Who sent you? I know that somebody has told you to ask this."

"Are you joking?" Yudi stuttered, unable to believe that Raj had figured it out. "Nobody sent me! Aren't I allowed to be curious about who my friend's girlfriend is? And besides, our parents are good friends so I was wondering if I knew her."

"Hmmmm," Raj replied, not looking as if he was fully convinced. "Well you won't have to wait long to meet her, she might be coming to the Republic Day celebrations."

"Really?" Yudi asked, excited. Surely that piece of information would make both Navin and Tanu happy.

"Yes, really." Raj told him, "And you're not getting anything out of me other than that."

As Yudi left with a huge smile on his face, thinking that he had been successful in finding something important out, he missed the mischievous grin on Raj's face.

So Navin and Tanu had decided to involve somebody else in this game too.

Raj could deal with that.

/

After hearing Yudi's news, Navin and Tanisha stared at each other. "So what does that mean?" Tanu asked him, "He actually does have some other girlfriend?"

"Not necessarily," Navin replied, "Naina has promised to come to Republic Day, remember?"

Caught up in the puzzle, they had completely forgotten that Yudi was still sitting there.

"Hang on, Chief." Yudi suddenly interrupted, "Naina? You mean your sister? You think that she's Raj's girlfriend?"

Navin suddenly realised that they'd just exposed themselves in front of Yudi, and would have to deal with it somehow. He quickly decided that honesty was the best policy.

"Well not really," he replied, "We were trying to set them up together. We thought it would be a good idea if they got married."

"I can't believe this!" Yudi exclaimed, "You're actually setting your sister up with somebody? I try to keep my sister as far away as possible from all of you, thank god she was away on some camp when Aalekh came home for Diwali."

"It's not like I have bad intentions!" Navin defended himself, "Naina is too stubborn to accept any boy I choose for her, so we just had to do it a bit… sneakily."

"And why is it so important for Naina to end up with Raj in the first place?"

"Well, uh… she has to get married some day and you know…"

Yudi suddenly got it, he knew exactly why Navin and Tanu had planned this. "And you need her to get married before you can, right? Guys, that is really wrong!"

"Wrong or not," Tanu interrupted, "If you don't tell anyone and help us out when we need it, then we'll help you too."

Yudi thought about it for a moment. "Fine," he told them, "But if it turns out that Raj really does have another girlfriend then you're on your own."

/

The next day in the afternoon, Raj had sneaked away in the afternoon to make a phone call to Naina.

"I don't think I've ever looked forward to the 26th January so much in my entire life." He told her when she picked up the phone. "This is truly going to be excellent now."

"Why?" she asked, "Did my prank yesterday work better than expected?"

"It certainly did! They've now involved our friend Yudi, due to Aalekh's chutti, and sent him to ask me who my girlfriend was. I told him she would be coming to Independence Day so now they're panicking about whether it's you or some other girl will turn up."

"Brilliant!" Naina said, "Do you think we should get some other girl to actually turn up just to keep them guessing?"

"That might be a bit too much," Raj told her, "And besides I don't know any other girls I would trust enough to get them to do that."

"So how has everything been going?" Naina asked him, "You know, in general?"

"All of this scheming is damn hard." Raj told her, "I'm pretending that I'm in love with you while pretending that I'm not in love with you, meanwhile I'm also pretending that I don't know that Navin and Tanu are pretending not to know that we're apparently in love, and pretending that I don't know both Aalekh and Yudi are a part of Navin's plan."

"Wow," Naina finally said when he finished, "Maybe we should've called in 'Operation Pretence' instead."

"No, I think you named it just perfectly when you called it 'Operation Confusion'." Raj told her, "I've never been more confused in my entire life, it's getting to the point where I sometimes can't remember what I'm pretending to who and what's actually real."

"Don't worry, I'll be there with you in less than a month!" Naina reassured him, "Until then just try and keep it together."

"Well I'll look forward to seeing you then," Raj told her, "Make sure to think up some good ideas and let me know what they are!"

Just then Abhimanyu and Nandini walked past the phone hand in hand, and Raj began one of his coughing fits, hoping that they hadn't heard anything.

"You know I think we're really going to have to get Suriji to clean that phone." Abhimanyu remarked, "Either there's too much dust in it or there's something else that Raj has an allergy to. Have you seen how much he coughs whenever he gets a call?"

Raj tried very hard to control his laughter until they were out of hearing, but on the other end of the phone he could hear that Naina hadn't succeeded. She was laughing so hard that he was surprised she hadn't dropped the phone yet.

It was music to his ears.


	13. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12:**

Everything was going absolutely fine until three days before Republic Day. That was when Raj's parents decided to give him a nasty surprise.

After the orderly informed him that he had a call, Raj immediately rushed to the phone, thinking that it might be Naina. However he was disappointed and a little nervous when he heard the voice on the other end.

"Raj Beta, it's me."

"Oh hi Dad, how are you?"

"I'm fine, son. How's your training going?"

"It's going very well."

Raj wasn't really sure what to say next, or the reason why his father had called, so he just waited.

"Actually Beta, it's about Republic Day…"

"You haven't decided to change your mind and actually come have you?" Raj asked, horrified. That would ruin all their plans. Then he realised that he had sounded rather rude and tried to cover up. "I mean… I was supposed to hand in some forms before now if you were coming."

"No Beta, we're not coming, work is too busy for me at the moment and your mother has a charity function to attend. However there is somebody coming that we would like you to meet."

With every word his father said, Raj was becoming more and more nervous. "And uh, who is that, Dad?"

"Well Beta, very soon you'll be finishing your training, and after that there'll be nothing stopping you from settling down," This was not sounding good… "By coincidence I happened to run into my friend Mr Sahni at a meeting the other day and found out that he lives in Ambala. He has a lovely daughter and I don't think it would hurt you to meet her."

"Wait a minute, Dad. Mr Sahni? Do you mean my batchmate Yudi's dad?" This had to be a joke, it just had to be…

"Yes that's right, his son is at your academy too, I'd forgotten that. Anyway, Neelu will be coming to the Republic Day celebrations so you two can meet each other and see whether you like each other."

"Uh dad, I really don't think that this is…"

"Why not, Raj? The girl is from a good family, and from what I've heard she's both pretty and smart. It won't hurt you to at least meet her once."

"But dad, I…"

"She's coming to the ceremony. You'll meet. There will be no more discussion about it."

His father hung up and Raj groaned, this was the last thing he needed right now. While Navin was scheming to get him married to Naina, apparently his parents had started scheming to get him married to Yudi's sister.

How did he get himself into this mess?

/

Not wanting to waste any time, Raj immediately dialled Naina's number; panicking when her mother picked up, he hung up the phone. He had been so desperate to talk to her that he had forgotten it was her college time at the moment.

The rest of the day, Raj remained extremely stressed. All of his friends noticed, and even Navin and Tanu began to get worried, thinking that there was some problem between him and Naina.

"Raj, are you okay?" Navin asked, honestly concerned about his best friend. "Is there some problem?"

"Just a small one," Raj reassured him, "Hopefully it will be sorted out by tonight."

He could barely wait for the time when he knew Naina would be back at home after college, rushing to the phone rather than going to the mess for his dinner. Luckily this time it really was Naina that picked up the phone.

"Thank god," he told her, "I've been waiting to call you all day, there's a huge problem." 

"What is it?" she asked him, concerned, "You're alright aren't you?"

"Don't worry, I'm fine, and so is everybody else. It's about Republic Day…"

"Oh no," Naina exclaimed, "Your parents haven't decided to come after all have they? That would really ruin all our plans."

"No, even worse in fact. My parents have decided to try and set me up with Yudi's sister Neelu, they want her to come and meet me at Republic Day!"

"WHAT!" Naina exclaimed very loudly, "How can they do that? Just set you up with somebody you don't even know?"

"Well Naina, do I need to remind you that Navin did exactly the same thing? At least my parents are being honest about it."

Naina had to admit that he had a point.

"But why? And how do they even know Yudi and his sister?" 

"Well dad and Yudi's father are both business men so I suppose they know each other from some association or other. Anyway, forget that, how do we deal with this?"

"Well what sort of a girl is this Neelu?" Naina asked him.

"Honestly I have no idea, and I'm not brave enough to ask Yudi, because it's so embarrassing."

"Well she better not try anything with you or she will learn very quickly that NOBODY messes with Naina Singh Ahluwalia's pretend boyfriend!"

Raj felt quite happy at the possessive tone in Naina's voice, and how offended she was on his behalf.

"You know, this could work in our favour." Raj told her, after he had thought about it.

"Really, how?" Naina asked.

"Well you know how you were joking we should get another girl to turn up, here's one that's going to. It's the perfect opportunity to mess with Navin and Tanu's minds even more."

"So then what do we do? Are you going to pretend you like her?"

"No, that wouldn't help our plan" Raj replied, "I'll show them that I'm not in the least bit interested and keep trying to avoid her to spend time with you."

"Excellent!" Naina told him, "We'll have to get Aalekh to run interference for us, he can help to keep her distracted so that you don't have to spend too much time together."

"Good plan," Raj replied, "I'm sure he'll agree, as long as he doesn't decide to take a holiday again."

/

Aalekh promised that he was not going to take a holiday on Republic Day, and that he would help them in whatever way was necessary. Actually he had no choice, because after the last experience, Navin and Tanu had both promised to murder him if he decided to take another chutti on the 26th January.

Finally it was almost nine in the morning on Republic Day and everybody was excited to have their families arriving. Everybody except Raj, Aalekh and Abhimanyu that was. Raj and Aalekh for obvious reasons and Abhimanyu because he was sure that his father was going to bring a whole royal entourage with him.

The first to arrive was Pooja's family, followed shortly afterwards by Ali's. Everybody immediately became very interested in seeing whether the two families would meet or not and how Ali and Pooja would introduce each other to their families. Nobody was disappointed to watch Ali's shyness or Pooja's enthusiasm, and they all exchanged secret smiles. It was obvious to everybody how much the very mismatched couple liked each other.

Meanwhile, Raj had his arms crossed and was drumming his fingers impatiently.

"Who are you waiting for?" Abhimanyu asked him, "I thought that your parents weren't coming."

"Ahhh… me?" Raj asked, suddenly caught. "Nobody, nobody at all. I'm just… waiting here."

He could see that his answer clearly didn't impress Abhimanyu at all, but it didn't matter. It would just lift Navin and Tanu's hopes even more.

Finally the moment that Raj had been waiting for arrived, as Naina's auto pulled up in front of the academy. Paying the driver quickly, she ran up the steps so fast that she tripped on one of them. Even as Navin went forward to catch her, he noticed that Raj had moved even faster, catching her by the arms before she could fall down.

"Nice catch!" Naina complimented him, blushing a little at her clumsiness. She couldn't believe she'd managed to embarrass herself in front of almost the whole academy. But seeing the looks on Navin and Tanu's faces as they looked on, she thought that her almost accident had worked in their favour.

Quickly recovering, she decided that she couldn't waste this moment. Noticing that Raj hadn't let go of her arms just yet and was staring down at her with an unreadable expression on his face, she quickly threw her arms around him. "Raj it's so good to see you again! I've missed you so much!" She announced so loudly that nobody watching could miss out on hearing, "And you've got perfect timing as usual!"

Catching on to Naina's plan, Raj hugged her back, honestly he couldn't describe how happy he was to actually see her. The moment when she had tripped on those stairs, it had been as if his heart had leapt out of his chest to settle in his throat. "I've missed you too, Naina." He told her slightly more quietly, "But uh, maybe you should go and greet your brother and Tanu as well."

"Er, right." Naina replied, and reluctantly took her arms from around him, only half acting this time. "Navin! Tanu! I've missed you too!" And she hurried towards them, this time managing to avoid tripping. Giving them both tight hugs, she grinned at them as Raj made his way over to join them.

"So guys, what about my tour?" Naina asked them, "You know that I missed out on coming last year due to my exams. Now I want to see the entire academy!"

Navin seized his opportunity, "We've just got to wait for Tanu's parents to arrive, would you mind if Raj took you on a quick tour?"

"Of course not!" Naina announced, and immediately linked her arm through Raj's, then just as quickly went to remove it, pretending that she had made a mistake by acting so affectionately in front of her brother and future sister-in-law. "Shall we go?" She asked a bit more sedately, wishing that she hadn't had to let go of his arm in the first place for the sake of acting.

"Yes, in fact let's go right now!" Raj grabbed Naina's hand and practically dragged her away from there. He had just seen something that had caused him to panic, Yudi greeting a girl that had gotten out of a car. As far as Raj knew, the only girl Yudi could possibly be greeting was his sister.

"What's the hurry?" Naina asked him, as he continued to drag her around the corner until they were out of sight.

"You don't recognise Yudi, do you?" Raj asked, knowing that Naina hadn't met him, she just shook her head. "Well I just saw him greeting a girl, it has to be his sister."

Naina made a face, "Then let's get as far away from here as possible. You really can take me for the tour, I do want to see the academy."

"Alright, I'd be happy to, first we'll go to see…"

Naina linked her arm through Raj's again and they set off to see the academy.

/

Meanwhile, Yudi was greeting Neelu.

"Hey bro," she told him, "So this is your academy, I can't believe I've never come here before when it's so close by."

"Believe me, Neelu, there's a reason why you've never been here before." Yudi told her, "I would prefer to keep you as far away from the academy as possible. And why is it that you've come instead of mum and dad?"

Neelu rolled her eyes. "Because of their stupid plans, they threatened not to give me this month's pocket money unless I turned up." Yudi was just about to ask what plans, when Neelu interrupted them. "So where's your friend Raj?"

"Raj? What do you want with him?" Yudi asked her, confused, and then suddenly remembered Raj's words, that his girlfriend would be coming to the academy on Republic Day.

"Neelu! You're not…" And then utterly horrified by the thought of Neelu being Raj's girlfriend and that all of Navin and Tanu's plans were about to be ruined, he ran off in the direction that he had seen Raj run off in.

"Weird…" Neelu muttered, as she saw her brother disappear. Just great, now her entire day was going to be wasted, she had to meet one of her parents' boring friends' son, who was probably just as boring, and now even her brother had gone off and left her here alone. What was she supposed to do, just hang around a military academy by herself?

Neelu was tempted to just go home, but she knew that her parents would quiz her so much that she was sure to stuff up if she didn't at least meet the guy. Sighing, she wandered into the academy. Stopping the first guy she met, who at least looked slightly cool, she thought that she would ask him.

"Oy, do you know who Rajveer Singh Shekawat is and where I can find him?"

"Do I look like a saala information service?" The guy asked her, giving serious attitude.

"Whatever," Neelu replied, "I don't even want to be here, now if I can't find this stupid guy, I'll have to miss out on a month's pocket money…"

"Wait…" The guy replied, "Who are you and why are you looking for Raj?"

"I'm Neelu, Yudi's sister, and I'm being forced to find him due to my stupid parents."

Suddenly the guy's eyes lit up. "Apun Aalekh hai," he told her, "So you're not actually interested in getting married to Raj?"

"As if," Neelu snorted, "He's probably completely boring and definitely not my type if he's someone that my parents would want me to get married to."

"Well that's good," Aalekh told her, "Because right now Raj is running away from you since he doesn't want to get married to you either."

"Excellent," Neelu said happily, "Then all I need to do is find him so that I can describe him to my parents when they ask me."

"That might be harder than you think," Aalekh replied, "Raj is one of the best cadets here, he's pretty good at hiding. And he's got Naina on his side as well."

"Naina? Who's Naina?" Neelu asked, suddenly interested. This was turning out to be a better day than she thought it would be.

"She's his…" Aalekh thought about what to say to describe Raj and Naina's relationship, but failed to find anything he could tell her without revealing the whole plan. Suddenly Aalekh made a decision. "Do you want to hear a very long story?" he asked Neelu, "If you promise not to tell Yudi what I'm telling you?"

Neelu's day at the academy was suddenly looking better and better.

/

Meanwhile with great difficulty, Yudi had finally managed to track down Raj and Naina. Especially difficult because Raj had been giving her a tour of the academy at a lightening fast pace, moving from one place to the next before anybody could catch them. He still hadn't let go of Naina's hand, but didn't mind the people whispering about it. With any luck at least one of them would tell either Navin or Tanu what they had seen.

"Raj, do you think that maybe this is a little bit ridiculous?" Naina asked him, "Maybe you should meet this girl and just tell her you're not interested in getting married."

"And if she's anything like my parents' friends' daughters usually are, she's not going to take no for an answer." Raj replied, looking over his shoulder to check that nobody was following them.

"Ooo look, the canteen." Naina said, "You know I could really do with a chai, I haven't actually had one this morning and it was a long bus ride. Let's sit down."

Reluctantly, Raj allowed her to lead him to a seat. "Suriji, could we please have two chais?" he asked politely, while continuing to look around nervously.

"Raj, just relax!" Naina hissed at him, "Whatever happens, I'm here to protect you. I'll tell her that I'm your girlfriend and threaten to slap her if she comes near you, alright?"

Raj relaxed slightly at this and smiled at Naina very affectionately, "You're the best, you know that?"

Naina just grinned at him, "I still remember what you did for me when Huda was following me around. Can't I do even this much for you?"

Raj took her hand from across the table and squeezed it, unable to believe how wonderful it was to have her there with him again. It made him wonder how he'd ever managed to spend these last two months without her.

Naina was also wondering the same thing, she was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn't even notice she was still holding his hand until Suriji placed their chais down and cleared his throat.

The two of them suddenly jumped apart, and Naina looked down at the table, not sure why she was feeling so embarrassed.

"So Raj Putar, who is this lovely young lady?" Suriji asked him with a twinkle in his eye.

"Suriji this is Naina, and Naina this is Suriji. Naina is…" Raj wasn't sure what he should introduce her as, his friend or Navin's sister.

"It's okay, Putar, I understand." Suriji said, and winking at Raj, he left them alone together.

"This is almost too easy…" Naina had just started telling Raj when suddenly Yudi burst into the canteen and made a beeline for them.

"Dude, your girlfriend is my sister? How could this happen without me knowing? You could've told me the truth!" He announced loudly in a very hyper way.

Raj just stared at him, it was obvious that there had been some sort of huge misunderstanding on Yudi's part.

"Yudi, I think that you haven't heard the whole story…" he began to say.

"The whole story? Here I was thinking that…" and suddenly he noticed Naina sitting at the table with a stunned expression on her face. "Uh, who are you?" he asked, suddenly realising that he might have made a big mistake.

Suriji came up and quietly told him, "Yudi Putar, that is Rajveer's girlfriend, now she's not your sister, is she?"

"Uh, no, she's not." Yudi said, feeling very silly and also wondering exactly who this girl was. "I'm so sorry, that was a huge misunderstanding. I'm Yudi, and you are…"

"Naina!" Navin called out her name, entering the canteen with Tanu, "I should've realised that you and Raj would eventually end up here."

Then he noticed Yudi standing by the table, "Oh hey Yudi, I see that you've met my sister Naina." He said casually, before pulling up a chair to join Raj and Naina at the table.

Yudi wasn't sure whether he should be laughing or crying.

None of them realised at this point that the best of the day was still to come.


	14. Chapter 13

Chapter 13:

Wanting to distract everybody before Yudi blurted out something that he wasn't meant to, Raj quickly told them to join him and Naina and have some chai. After all, it wasn't part of the plan that Navin and Tanu receive confirmation that he and Naina were actually dating just yet.

Not that they actually were dating…

Oh never mind…

Meanwhile Yudi had a huge grin on his face, clearly he couldn't wait to tell Navin and Tanu what he had just found out since now they would surely agree to give him all the help he could ever need to win Shalini over.

Everything had only just calmed down and they were all sipping their chai while pretending to act casual when suddenly Aalekh and Neelu walked in.

Since Raj hadn't actually gotten a good look at the girl getting out of the car, and the last thing he expected was for Neelu to be hanging around with Aalekh, he didn't immediately panic.

"Oy Nautanki," Aalekh announced in Yudi's direction, who looked up suddenly, "Don't you think it was a bit rude for you to abandon your sister like that."

On hearing the word 'sister', Raj started choking on the biscuit he'd been eating and swallowing her tea way too fast, Naina spluttered slightly before hurriedly patting Raj on the back until he calmed down.

Navin and Tanu who knew absolutely nothing at all about Raj and Neelu's parents setting them up together just stared at the two of them as if they'd lost their minds.

Neelu glanced at Aalekh and he made a small gesture in Raj's direction as if to say 'he's the one'.

Neelu looked Raj up and down appraisingly and then made a slight face as if to say 'not bad'. "Hi, I'm Neelu," she announced, "So you're the one I'm meant to get married too."

It was now Navin and Tanu's turn to be shocked. Navin's mouth dropped open and Tanu gasped, bringing a hand up to her mouth in shock. All at once she could see all of her plans crumbling down.

Meanwhile, Naina had begun glaring alternately at both Neelu and Aalekh. Neelu for obvious reasons, and Aalekh because he had been the one who brought her here.

"Raj what is this?" Navin asked angrily, as if he'd just found out that Raj had been cheating on his sister. "How could you not tell me about this? I thought we were best friends, I thought that…" He suddenly stopped himself due to Tanu's hand on his arm, realising that he shouldn't mention the plan, a bit more calmly, he added, "Raj what the hell is going on?"

Raj just groaned, and without answering, slumped down in his chair, covering his eyes with his hands as if to try and make it all go away. Right now what he really wanted to do was bang his head on the table repeatedly but somehow he managed to resist.

Neelu was trying not to look amused but failing. This was the most fun that she'd had in a long time, and she was very glad that she'd gotten involved in Aalekh's 'Operation Golmaal'. The only worry was that Naina was still glaring at her rather dangerously, as if she wanted to do something unpleasant to her.

Neelu was just about to say something to break the tension, when suddenly Naina stood up.

"I need to go use the bathroom, and I think it's best if I don't go wandering around alone in a military academy. Neelu, would you like to join me?" By the look on Naina's face, Neelu wondered how she could ever dare to say no.

Neelu glanced at Aalekh worriedly as if to ask whether she was about to be murdered in an academy bathroom, but he just gave her a slight nod as if to tell her that she would be fine.

"Uh, sure." Neelu replied, a bit uncertainly. Usually she wasn't scared of anybody, but this girl really did seem dangerous.

As soon as they had entered the bathroom, Naina crossed her arms across her chest and looked Neelu up and down, narrowing her eyes.

"Tell me right now exactly what your intentions are in relation to Raj." Naina announced in a no nonsense tone.

"Why?" Neelu asked, feeling amused, "What's Raj to you?"

"He's my boyfriend!" Naina announced indignantly, and with quite a bit of jealousy, "We love each other very much and we're planning to get married."

Neelu started laughing, while Naina stared at her as if she'd gone mad.

"Relax," Neelu told her, figuring that she'd messed with Naina's mind quite enough for one day. "I'm not in the least bit interested in your Raj at all. It was our stupid parents that set up this scheme, I assure you that he's really not my type."

Naina gave a huge sigh of relief, visibly becoming more relaxed.

"You really were worried, weren't you?" Neelu asked, still quite amused.

"Well, yes." Naina admitted, realising that it was true. "It's just that…"

"That you love him a lot, don't you?"

"Yes I do," Naina admitted seriously, without thinking about it. Realising what she had just said, she quickly tried to cover it up, "I mean that we…" well, it was the plan wasn't it. She loved him as part of the plan, that was all…

"Well how about we go back to the canteen and tell them the truth before they all die from the suspense." Neelu suggested and Naina hurriedly agreed, worrying about how Raj would be coping with Navin, Tanu and Yudi.

When they arrived back, Raj still had his hands over his eyes and was slumped even lower in his seat. Neelu wondered whether he thought that if he couldn't see anybody then they wouldn't be able to see him either.

Naina tapped Raj on the shoulder, and whispered something in his ear which caused him to take his hands off his eyes and sit up straight again.

"Jeez, relax everybody." Neelu told them all, "I don't really want to get married to him. It's just some stupid plan of our parents that I'll never allow to be successful. Neelu likes her freedom."

"Thank god," Raj announced relieved, "I mean uh, you seem like a nice girl and everything but…" and he looked in Naina's direction as if wanting to say something further.

"It's okay," Neelu told him with a wink, "I understand perfectly."

"Sorry yaar," Navin told Raj, "I really overreacted. I should've trusted you more."

"Yeah, me too." Yudi apologised, "I just got a little bit crazy when I thought you'd been going out with my sister without telling me."

"Yes," Naina added hurriedly, "Because Raj would never do anything like that." Out of the corner of her eye she caught Navin and Tanu's reactions which were exactly what she hoped they would be, thrilled.

Now that all the confusion was sorted out, they all sat down together, everybody more relaxed than they had been a few minutes ago.

It was then that Abhimanyu walked in, followed by his father and his father's five attendants. Their friend looked quite fed up by this point and glanced at Nandini as if to say, 'save me please', but she just gave him a sympathetic glance in return from where she sat with her parents at the table next to Raj and Naina's.

"Darling, who's that boy and why does he have so many people with him?" Nandini's mother asked her, having noticed them glancing at each other.

"That's Abhimanyu, mummy." Nandini replied self consciously, since neither she nor Abhi had told their parents about their relationship yet. "He's a prince, and so that's his father the king and his father's attendants." Nandini's mother looked impressed, Nandini decided that this was definitely a positive sign.

Meanwhile Naina was struggling not to laugh, finding the whole thing very funny as Abhimanyu ordered chai for everybody with him, and his father's attendants fussed about whether the king was comfortable or not.

"Poor guy…" Raj said sympathetically, "I'm starting to feel very happy that my parents don't take much interest in these things."

Naina just smiled, shaking her head, and then while the rest of the table were also distracted in watching the spectacle, she touched Raj's hand and then leaned over to whisper in his ear.

"You know I'm wearing the chappals that you bought me in Nainital," she told him happily, "I hope that Navin and Tanu will notice."

Raj felt strangely thrilled to know that she was wearing something he had bought for her. "I doubt that Navin would, but you never know, Tanu might." He told her, then added a bit worriedly, "It wasn't the chappals that made you fall on the stairs was it?"

"No, no." Naina replied quickly, "It was just my natural clumsiness and because I was in such a rush to get to you." She blushed slightly, realising that maybe she shouldn't have said that last bit. "And uh, whether they notice or not, these really are my favourite chappals."

Raj felt absurdly happy, and started grinning. This really was the best Republic Day ever.

"Hey Tanu, where's your parents?" Naina suddenly asked, realising that they were nowhere in sight. "I wanted to meet them."

"Well it turns out that one of our teachers, Major Deol, is an old friend of Dad's from college, so they're busy catching up together." Tanu informed her, "I'll introduce you after the parade."

/

The parade started soon afterwards and Neelu and Naina sat together to watch it, now much more friendly with each other when Naina knew Neelu wasn't interested in Raj. Naina made sure to take plenty of pictures of everybody as they paraded by, knowing that her parents would want to see them when she got home.

"You know," Neelu announced as the cadets stood to attention at the end, "Aalekh is really hot. I wouldn't have minded if my marriage had been fixed with him instead."

Naina grinned, feeling very happy. She had always wanted Aalekh to find a nice girl, and now here was one that was very interested in him. She wondered whether they should begin a new operation of matchmaking to unite Aalekh and Neelu and then very quickly dismissed the idea. One operation was already more than she could handle.

"Aalekh's a great guy," Naina told Neelu, "He's a bit rough around the edges but he's got a heart of gold. You've made a good choice."

This day just kept turning out better and better.

/

As promised, Tanisha introduced her parents to Naina after the parade.

"I'm so excited to meet you, Uncle and Aunty." Naina told them, "It was so lovely to have Tanu with us at Diwali, she really has become a part of our family now and I can't wait until she's officially my Bhabhi!" Saying this, she put an arm around Tanu's waist and gave it a quick squeeze. "In fact I don't even mind if Navin and Tanu get married before I do, I would be perfectly happy if they did!" Naina just hoped that everybody decided to take the hint…

"Why, sis?" Navin asked her, "Why don't you want to get married? Is it just because you haven't found the right guy yet?"

"No it's not that." Naina says rather hurriedly, and glanced in Raj's direction, making sure she did so for long enough that Navin and Tanu both noticed. "I just really want to finish my studies first, you know that Bhaiyya."

"Well Beti, it is the 21st century now." Tanisha's mother told her reassuringly, "There's nothing to stop you from continuing your studies after marriage."

Naina felt like groaning, it was so not the response that she'd wanted.

/

Most of the guests were going to be staying overnight in the academy, since it would've been too tiring for them to travel there and back in the same day. Despite the fact that she lived close by, Neelu's parents had insisted that she stay too, obviously hoping that she would spend some more time with Raj.

Yeah right.

Since Naina and Neelu would be sharing a room together, it was very lucky that they'd managed to sort out the issues between them. Unfortunately, nobody else seemed to realise that the two of them would be in the same room. Which led to the next round of confusion.

"Naina, what room will you be in?" Raj asked her quietly at dinner when Navin wasn't listening, "I'll come see you after lights out and we can discuss our progress."

Meanwhile, two other people had exactly the same plan.

"I'm staying in room 210," Neelu whispered to Aalekh, "Come see me after lights out."

And so the evening was set…

/

Neelu had just left the room in order to shower and get changed when Naina heard a tap on the window. Hurrying over and opening the curtains, she stared out shocked to see Raj clinging to a drain pipe while he motioned to her to open the window. Quickly she opened it and giving him her hand, helped him to climb inside.

"What are you doing?" she asked him, "Why didn't you just use the door?"

"Yeah right," Raj replied, "As if Lolitaji is just going to let me walk into the girl's hostel. This is the only way to get in without getting caught."

"Oh, and I suppose you've climbed up drain pipes into lots of girls' rooms have you?" Naina asked him, feeling a bit jealous at the thought.

"No, not at all." Raj reassured her, "In fact usually it was me helping Navin climb up the drain pipe so that he could get to Tanu's room."

Naina laughed at that, and then sat down on the bed cross legged, motioning to Raj that he should do the same.

He joined her, and they smiled at each other.

"I think we did rather well today," Raj told her, "By now Navin and Tanu must be sure that we're going out but they still don't have any actual proof."

"So now before I leave, we mess with their minds even more!" Naina announced cheerfully, "We need to plan something for tomorrow morning, something big."

"I say we disappear together for awhile tomorrow morning." Raj told her, "And then get back just before you're due to leave. They'll be wondering what we've been doing together."

"Oooo, even better," Naina told him, "When we get back, there should be something for them to notice. And that's exactly why I've brought you a gift!"

"You brought me a gift?" Raj asked her, "What is it?"

"Well you'll just have to wait until tomorrow to find that out, won't you?" Naina told him teasingly, "Just think of it as Naina's amazing planning that I thought of doing it."

"You really are amazing," Raj told her, in the same adoring tone she had occasionally heard him use on the phone but had thought she had imagined. Naina blushed slightly, and it was then that Raj reached out and took one of her hands in both of his, "You know Naina," he told her, looking very seriously into his eyes, "No matter how this started or for what reasons…"

Before he could continue, there was another tap at the window.

Startled, Raj quickly dropped Naina's hand.

"Ahhh, you weren't expecting anybody else were you?" he asked, genuinely confused about who it might be.

"Definitely not," Naina told him, "I'll go and see who it is, stay out of sight for a minute."

Once again opening the curtains and then the window, she stared at the person hanging onto the drain pipe.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, giving Aalekh a hand so that he could climb into the room.

"Yes exactly, what are you doing here?" Raj asked, emerging from around the corner where he'd been hiding. He was glaring at Aalekh in such a way that Aalekh was suddenly sure that he had disturbed something.

"Well what are you doing here?" he asked Raj, raising an eyebrow. "After all, Navin's not here to see you climbing into Naina's window, so what's your reason?"

Raj suddenly turned red, "We were having a planning meeting!" he told Aalekh very quickly, "And you still haven't answered my question about what you're doing here!"

"Well," Aalekh looked around and realised that Neelu was nowhere in sight. "I think I might have accidentally come to the wrong room."

"Thanks a lot," Raj muttered under his breath, unable to believe that on top of Aalekh's incredibly bad timing, it had all been a mistake.

"So whose room did you think you were climbing into?" Naina asked, before the realisation suddenly hit her and she grinned. "Ohhhh so things have reached that stage already have they?"

Raj, who still had no idea who Naina's room mate was, was a bit confused about why she was suddenly grinning and what she was talking about.

Luckily his confusion was quickly cleared when Neelu walked into the room, clearly dressed to go out somewhere.

"Hey Aalekh, hey Raj." She greeted them casually, "Well shall we get going?"

Raj just gaped at her, not having expected this at all.

Aalekh decided it was probably best to get out of there as quickly as possible. "Sure," he told Neelu, "I'll go down first and then help you." And then he left the same way that he'd come.

"Great!" Neelu told him, and threw her shoes out the window so that she could put them on once she'd climbed down. "Well see you guys, have a nice night!" And then she disappeared out the window too.

Naina and Raj just stared at each other, this was turning out to be a busier night than they had expected.

"Uh, maybe I should get going too before somebody else catches me here." Raj told Naina, having lost the confidence to say what he had wanted to tell her earlier. Naina was disappointed but nodded anyway, then walked him to the window.

"Be careful climbing down." She told him, and then watched until he had made his way down the pipe safely and had waved at her. She waved back before closing the curtains but left the window open. After all, Neelu would be coming back some time during the night.

On the ground, Raj stopped waving when he saw Naina close the curtains and turned around only to run straight into Yudi who was looking at him very suspiciously.

"Dude," he told Raj, "If I'm not mistaken then that's my sister's window that you've just climbed out of. I thought you said that there was nothing going on between you!"

"There's not!" Raj cursed his luck that out of everybody he had to run into Yudi right now, "It wasn't her window I was climbing out of!"

Yudi carefully counted the windows across and realised that it was definitely room 210 that Raj had just come from. "Dude, don't lie, that so was my sister's window."

"Fine, it was, but it wasn't your sister I had gone to see, it was…" Raj stopped, this hadn't been part of the plan and if he told Yudi then Navin and Tanu would both find out as well.

"Yes, I'm waiting." Yudi told him impatiently, still very, very suspicious.

"IhadgonetoseeNaina," Raj said all in a rush, "To uh, see whether she had a good day at the academy today." He finished rather lamely.

"Oh, so you went to see Naina?" Yudi said in a very interested tone of voice. "Well that's…"

"Yes, it's very nice isn't it!" Raj said somewhat hysterically, "And uh, Yudi, could you please not tell either Navin or Tanu about this? Please?"

"Would I do that to you, Raj?" Yudi asked, and looking relieved, Raj nodded his thanks and ran off before anybody else could catch him.

Yudi smiled, unfortunately the answer was yes, he would do that to Raj.

After all, everything was fair in love and war.


	15. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14:**

Neelu had returned back later that night after Naina had already gone to sleep, so they didn't get to talk until they woke up early the next morning.

"So how was your night?" Naina asked her mischievously, digging for gossip. While she might not have decided to carry out an operation for the Neelu and Aalekh, it didn't mean she didn't want to know what was going on.

"Why are you asking me about my night?" Neelu teased her, "Shouldn't you be telling me about yours instead? A guy climbing up to your room, I'm quite impressed. Hopefully you were able to get some privacy after we left."

Naina wasn't sure why she blushed so much at this. "It was nothing like that," she told Neelu, "Raj left soon after you guys did, he just had something to tell me."

"Oh really, something to tell you?" Neelu asked her with eyebrows raised, "And he had to climb into your room in the middle of the night to say it? So what was this thing he had to say?"

"I don't know," Naina suddenly frowned, "He was just about to tell me something when Aalekh arrived."

Neelu grimaced, "Sorry for the bad timing, you should've told me that you had plans. I would've made sure that we didn't disturb you."

"No it's not… I mean…There were no plans…" Naina started getting flustered, not sure of what to say, "I'm going to see him before I leave anyway, so I'll just ask him then."

"Just make sure that your brother doesn't find out." Neelu told her seriously, as a member of Operation Golmaal her main objective was to make Naina and Raj realise their feelings, without any interference from both Navin and Tanisha. "God knows what Yudi would do if he knew I was out with Aalekh last night."

Naina laughed at that, "Don't worry," she told Neelu, "None of us will tell Yudi. And as far as Navin is concerned… I've got it under control."

/

Meanwhile Yudi had finally found time to tell Navin and Tanu everything that he had learned the day before, taking them both aside before they could go for breakfast.

Both Navin and Tanisha's faces lit up with delight when Yudi repeated what Suriji had said about Naina being Raj's girlfriend, and they high fived each other.

"Excellent, Yudi!" Tanisha told him happily, "You've managed to get us confirmation of what we suspected all along. After this you'll have all the help you could ever want in winning Shalini over."

"But that's not the end of it guys," Yudi told them, feeling even prouder of himself for being able to tell them the next bit, "Last night I was on my way to bed when I passed by the girl's hostel and guess what I saw? Raj climbing out of your sister's window." He grinned, happy that he'd managed to get this very exclusive information.

However Navin was not happy about this at all.

"He was climbing out of my sister's room? What the hell was he doing in her room?"

"Navin, calm down." Tanu told him, "It could be perfectly innocent. Maybe he just went there to talk to her."

"Innocent?" Navin asked with a snort, "Yeah right, like talking is all we do when I climb into your room."

Tanisha gave an embarrassed cough, trying to remind him that Yudi was still standing there and that he shouldn't be saying any more on that topic.

Navin suddenly realised exactly what he had been saying in front of his friend, "Uh… I mean… well what was he doing in her room?"

"I have no idea," Yudi replied with a shrug, "But when I ran into him he did ask me not to tell you about it."

"That damn… I trust him with my sister and this is what happens! He starts climbing into her room in the middle of the night! Well that's it, I've had enough, I'm going to go and ask him what his intentions are right now!" Navin fumed, not able to believe that this was happening.

"Just wait one minute, Navin." Tanu began desperately, realising that he was about to ruin their whole plan, "Raj is your best friend, your room mate. You know him better than anyone else. Do you honestly feel that he's going to be doing anything with your sister that he shouldn't be? Come on, he's not that type of guy. Just calm down and think about it."

Navin took a deep breath and really did think about it. He had to admit that Tanu was right, as well as he knew Raj, he wasn't the type of guy to do anything like that.

"Okay, fine." Navin said, "But I'm going to be watching them both very carefully at breakfast this morning."

Except that neither of them ever turned up for breakfast.

/

Carrying out their plan to disappear together for awhile before Naina left, Raj took her down to the lake, where they sat on a large stone, their backs together so that they were leaning against each other.

"So how long do you think we should stay down here?" Naina asked, hoping that it would be for quite awhile. "How long is it going to take them to notice that we're not there?"

"Well I would say at least half an hour," Raj replied quite seriously, "But you never know, maybe we should stay down here even longer."

"I can't believe I'm going back again so soon," Naina told him glumly, "I wish I lived closer to the academy so that we could see each other more often. I mean, uh, so that I could see all of you more often."

"I wish you did too," Raj told her, "I… we all really miss you when you're not here with us. Everything seems more fun when you're around."

A silly grin came onto Naina's face at this comment, she was glad that she had her back to him so that he couldn't see. "Home is so dull without all of you," she told Raj, "I don't enjoy college as much as I used to, instead I spend all my time thinking about… about our mission."

"Don't worry, Naina." Raj told her seriously, "Even if our mission isn't successful, I won't let them force you into anything that you don't want to do and that's a promise."

Naina shifted, turning slightly so that she could see his face. "I can't believe I only met you two months ago. What on earth did I do without you before that?"

Raj grinned, "I was thinking exactly the same thing."

They both stared at each other, lost in their own thoughts. It was only the noise of a bird call which disturbed them.

Naina shook herself out of her daze, scolding herself for getting so easily distracted. "I've got something for you," Naina told him, feeling embarrassed even though it was part of their plan, "I don't know if it's the right time or not, but I've brought you a photo of me, you know, so Navin can find it, or something…"

She handed over the photo of herself, one in which she was looking directly into the camera smiling. Raj didn't know whether Navin would find it or not, but he was glad that he now had something to remind him of Naina's smile. He knew that if he was ever feeling down, then all he'd ever have to do would be to look at it to cheer himself up. He quickly put it into his jacket pocket, not wanting to lose it.

"I don't have one to give you in return." Raj told her, and then felt like slapping himself in the forehead for his stupidity. After all, why would she need a photo of him? There was nobody at home who needed to catch her looking at one.

"That's alright," Naina told him cheerfully, not seeming to realise what Raj had been thinking, "I've actually got quite a few pictures of you, first from your trip at Diwali and now even more from this Republic Day."

"That's good," Raj replied happily, absurdly pleased by the fact that she had his photo somewhere at home.

"So uh, I bought you a present." Naina told Raj a bit hesitantly, "I don't know whether you'll like it or not… but I thought it would be good if there was something for Navin and Tanu to notice after I left. And, well, I owed you a present after those chappals!" She hoped he wouldn't guess exactly how long it had taken her to choose something or how nervous she was to be actually giving it to him.

"You really didn't have to, Naina…" he told her, embarrassed by the fact that she had thought to get him a present and he didn't think of getting her anything.

"Still…" Shyly, Naina pressed a small box into his hands. Opening it, Raj saw quite an expensive looking sports watch, one that was absolutely perfect for a future soldier.

"Naina this is wonderful," he told her honestly, putting it on immediately and then admiring it on his wrist, "But how much did it cost you?"

"Leave it," Naina replied, slightly embarrassed, "It wasn't too much, and I have my part time job after college."

"It really is the perfect present," Raj told her, "I couldn't have asked for anything better."

Impulsively, Raj decided that he had to give Naina something too. Pulling his signet ring off his finger, he pressed it into her hand. "This is for you," he told her, "I don't know if it will fit you, but you could wear it or…"

"Raj, I can't take this," Naina told him, now feeling even more embarrassed than before, "This ring… well it looks like something your family has given you. "

"It doesn't matter," Raj replied, "I want you to have it, and uh… you can make sure that Navin and Tanu see it as you're leaving." He said the last bit almost as an afterthought, it really wasn't the reason that he gave it to her, but he felt like he needed to have some sort of excuse to be giving a present this important.

Blushing slightly, Naina tried it on a variety of her fingers before finally finding a place where it would fit. No matter what excuse Raj had given, it still felt incredibly special to be wearing his ring on her hand.

"So, uh…" hesitantly, Naina raised the topic that she had been wanting to ask him since last night, "What were you going to tell me before Aalekh came in last night?"

Raj took a deep breath before continuing, even he wasn't sure exactly what he had been going to tell Naina last night or how much he would've been brave enough to say.

"Actually," he began, really wanting to reach out and take one of her hands again, but now that it was happening in daylight by the lake rather than in her room at night, it was quite a bit harder. "I wanted to tell you that no matter how this began, or what reasons Navin and Tanu had for introducing us, I'm really glad they did." Finally gaining the courage, he reached out and took one of her hands in his, holding it loosely, he didn't dare to do any more than that. "You really are very special to me, Naina, and it's hard to imagine what my life would be like now if we hadn't met. So no matter how everything turns out, you have me in your life now whether you like it or not." He finished with a small grin, thinking that it was probably best not to get any more serious than that right now.

Naina couldn't help smiling either, and she held his hand even tighter. "You've said everything that I could want to say, Raj." She told him, "And as far as you being in my life, do you really think that I'd let you leave even if you wanted to?"

They sat there grinning at each other like fools for a moment, still holding hands until suddenly the academy's bell rang, reminding Raj that he had classes to attend and Naina that she had a bus to catch.

"So I guess we should go back up," she told him a little reluctantly, "Hopefully Bhaiyya won't be too annoyed about us disappearing for this long."

"Annoyed?" Raj laughed, "I expect that he'll be happier than anyone else."

Not letting go of her hand, he helped her back up the hill to the academy, patiently waiting for her to climb as she had some trouble on the stones on the way up. It was only when they were much closer to the academy that Raj dropped her hand, no longer having any real excuse to hold it.

Whereas before both of them had tried to make sure Navin and Tanu saw any displays of affection between them, now for reasons that neither wished to admit, they would prefer to keep those moments private.

Raj was about to continue going towards the academy when Naina stopped him with a hand on his arm.

"Raj, I was thinking… what if we say goodbye properly here?" she asked him. "I mean in front of Navin and Tanu and everyone, we'll have to put on an act, but if we say goodbye now…"

Even Raj had been thinking the same thing, wondering how he should be saying goodbye to Naina in front of Navin and Tanisha when what he really wanted to do was hug her properly before she went back.

"Then let's say goodbye here," Raj told her, "After all, we won't get to see each other again until…"

"You never know, I might come to visit again soon," Naina said hopefully, "After all, we have a few holidays coming up from college, and Neelu says that I can stay with her whenever I'm in town."

Raj couldn't describe how happy this thought made him, "I'd like it if you came to visit again soon, Naina." He told her sincerely, "And not just for planning our mission, I really do miss you when you're not here."

Impulsively, Naina reached out to hug him, wrapping her arms around his waist. Raj gladly hugged her back, his arms around her shoulders and her head against his chest. He could've sighed with contentment right then, in fact he could've stood like that all day, except…

"Uh Naina, I think you're about to get late to your bus. And if we don't get back now then your brother really is going to be more annoyed than happy."

"Oh, right." Naina replied, and reluctantly took her hands from around his waist.

They walked back to the academy as fast as possible, both thinking that maybe they'd gotten a bit carried away in trying to disappear for awhile together.

When they arrived back, Navin and Tanu were waiting on the front steps with Naina's bag. Aalekh, Yudi and Neelu were also there, Neelu obviously waiting to say goodbye to her brother. Neelu and Aalekh weren't actually saying anything to each other, but occasionally they would glance at each other when Yudi wasn't looking with small identical grins.

"Oh Bhaiyya! Bhabhi!" Naina exclaimed just a bit too brightly, suddenly nervous due to the look on Navin's face, "How nice of you to bring my bag down! You didn't need to do that, I would've done it myself!"

"We didn't do it," Tanu replied, "Neelu did. She seemed to think that you were going to be gone quite awhile." Neelu just winked at Naina, obviously happy that she'd come back so late.

"Oh, well thanks Neelu." Naina told her, "I hope I'll see you the next time I'm in Ambala!"

"Me too!" Neelu replied and gave her a quick hug.

"Well you should get going, sis." Yudi told her, "The academy is about to start for the day."

"Can't I stay a bit longer?" Neelu asked, obviously wanting to see what would happen next, but she gave in due to the look that Yudi was giving her, signalling to Aalekh that he'd better tell her later how everything had worked out.

"So where were you all this time?" Navin asked her, "You disappeared early this morning, I wanted to spend some time with you." Raj couldn't help but nervously note that Navin seemed to be glaring at him rather fiercely. He honestly had expected Navin to be happy…

"Well actually I wanted to see the academy's lake, and I ran into Raj on the way to breakfast, so he offered to show me." Naina improvised quickly.

"Oh did he," Navin remarked sarcastically, "So very nice of him."

Raj was starting to look a little scared, and Tanu elbowed Navin in the ribs as discretely as possible, trying to tell him to shut up before he ruined everything.

Despite their plan, Naina did her best to keep the hand with the ring on it hidden. No matter what excuses Raj had given for why he wanted her to have it, it just seemed too special to be using as some type of trump card in their game.

"I'm sorry Bhaiyya, I really am." Naina told him, hoping that his mood was going to improve before she left, "I honestly didn't realise that we were going to be getting back to the academy this late."

"It's alright, Naina." Navin told her, softening a little bit, "I'm just going to miss you that's all, that's why my mood is a little bit off." That and the fact that he was still annoyed Raj had climbed into her room last night…

"Don't worry Bhaiyya, I'll try to come and visit soon." Naina told Navin, giving him a huge hug, "And I'll call you often, just concentrate on becoming the best cadet." She also hugged Tanu, then Aalekh who was waiting to say goodbye too, and finally hugged Raj very briefly, not wanting to do more than that when the frown still hadn't left Navin's face.

"Call to let us know you got home safely." Navin told her, and Naina nodded, before waving goodbye and climbing into the auto.

Raj watched her as she left, waiting for the very last glimpse of her face. Naina turned around as the auto was about to exit the gate and the smile she gave him was enough to make him feel a hundred times better.

Raj followed Navin, Tanisha and Aalekh inside and they headed to their first class of the day, not wanting to be late.

It was only in the afternoon when Raj was alone in his room that he took out the picture of Naina from his pocket and stared at it. He'd come to a realisation that he could no longer deny.

He was completely and hopelessly in love with Naina Singh Ahluwalia.

Operation Confusion was so not going according to plan.


	16. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15:**

The feeling of being in love was quite a nice one, and Raj could've enjoyed it very well. He no longer had to fake the dreamy look on his face while he walked down the corridors, and he had to struggle not to hum a tune or whistle. It would've been a lot easier to stay in this good mood if everybody else hadn't seemed to somehow guess that he was in love and kept bothering him.

The first one the next morning was Pooja, with Ali reluctantly trailing behind.

"Oy Raj, you out of range caller." She announced cheerfully as she sat down opposite him, "Who was it you were making your connection with at the lake yesterday?"

Raj just stared at her, unable to believe what Pooja was asking.

"Uh? Me? Lake? I don't know what you're talking about, Pooja." He told her, glancing around nervously in case Navin turned up. His best friend still hadn't stopped frowning whenever he saw Raj and quite honestly, Raj was starting to get a little scared.

"Don't pretend, Raj. I know very well which numbers your sim card has been calling." Pooja told him looking amused, while Ali seemed to be trying to gesture to her that they should leave. "You were definitely down there with a girl, and if I'm not wrong, you were holding hands."

Raj couldn't believe this, if he climbed into Naina's room then he got caught by Yudi, if they went down to the lake he got caught by Pooja. This academy really wasn't the place to romance. He had no idea how Navin and Tanisha had ever managed to start dating with this type of lack of privacy.

Suddenly Raj remembered one of Major Nair's lessons, offence is the best form of defence.

"So what if I was by the lake with a girl?" He asked Pooja with a small smile, "The real question is what were you doing down by the lake and who were you with?"

As soon as he had asked, Ali and Pooja both turned bright red and Raj knew that he had hit the mark. Officially neither of them had admitted that they were dating, and Raj had just caught them.

"I think we've bothered Rajbhai enough, Pooja." Ali announced, "Sorry about that Raj, I told her that she shouldn't…" and grabbing Pooja's wrist he led her away from there whispering something furiously.

Raj just chuckled, at least now he knew that Pooja wasn't likely to mention anything to anyone else.

/

However that wasn't the end of it.

Raj was sitting with Abhimanyu and Nandini at lunch, trying to keep as far away from Navin as possible until his mood improved. He was just lifting up his spoon to take a bite when he noticed that Abhimanyu was staring at his hand rather intently.

"Hey Raj, what happened to your ring?" Abhimanyu asked him, "You know, that one you always used to wear."

Raj inwardly cursed Abhi and his sharp perception. He had honestly thought that he might be able to give his ring away to Naina without anyone noticing.

"I guess I lost it…" Raj told Abhimanyu lamely, hoping that he wouldn't press for a better answer. "Maybe it fell off during one of our drills."

Nandini snorted in a very unladylike way. "You lost it or you swapped it for that fancy new watch you're wearing?" She asked with a grin, clearly knowing that she was right.

Raj just glared at her as she and Abhimanyu grinned at each other. They were both far too mischievous for their own good, he was just glad that Navin and Tanisha hadn't managed to get the two of them involved as well.

"There's no good glaring at me like that, Rajveer." She told him in a mock serious tone, "I'm perfectly aware of what's going on. I was already in the mess with my parents when you came in with her on Republic Day."

Raj now knew that he was well and truly trapped. If he remembered correctly then he had been holding hands with Naina at some point during that time. He swore to himself right then, no more holding hands with Naina. Every time he did it, someone seemed to catch them.

"Fine," he said, only slightly annoyed, "You're right, I gave it to someone, now stop teasing me and go back to eating your lunch."

"Well now that we've settled the fact that Raj really does have a girlfriend," Abhimanyu started to say, smirking slightly, "The question remains as to who this girl is."

"Really Abhi, did you not notice anything on Republic Day?" Nandini asked him reproachfully, "Don't tell me you don't know who the girl is."

"Well in case you didn't notice, Nandini, I was a little busy with my father and his attendants." Abhimanyu replied with a sigh, "So why don't you go ahead and tell me who this girl is."

"It's Navin's sister, Naina." Nandini announced cheerfully, quite happy with herself for having figured it out.

"Could you be a bit quieter about it?" Raj asked her nervously, glancing around to where Navin thankfully sat quite far away eating his lunch.

Abhimanyu looked as if this was the most interesting news he'd heard in a very long time.

"You're going out with Navin's sister?" he whispered to Raj, noticing how nervous his friend was looking. "Does he know about this?"

"Do your parents know that you two are going out?" Raj asked them both with his eyebrows raised. "No, right? Well if you don't want them to find out then you won't say anything about this to anybody."

"That, my friend, is blackmail." Abhimanyu said with a small smile, amused by how worried Raj was, "But don't worry, we won't tell Navin. I'm just glad you finally found yourself a nice girl, Raj, otherwise we were afraid you'd be single forever or have to marry someone your parents chose." Abhi grimaced as if thinking about what would happen if he had to marry somebody that his parents chose.

Raj rolled his eyes at them. "Thank you so much for being so worried about my happiness, now could the two of you please shut up about this and never mention it again?"

"Fine, but just let us know if you need any help, advice, tips etc," Nandini told him cheerfully, "You know, what do girls like and…"

"If I ever want anything like that then I'll definitely tell you. But for god's sake, just stop talking about it now!" Raj told her, putting his spoon down on the table with a loud clang.

KMA was definitely not the best place to be in love.

/

It was evening when Aalekh finally caught up with Raj, pulling him aside before he could enter the mess.

"Make sure you stay away from Navin for awhile," Aalekh warned him, "He's upset with you."

"Yeah, I'd noticed." Raj replied grimly, "Whenever I turn around I find him staring at me as if he wants to drill a hole in my head with his eyes. What's wrong with him?"

"Yudi told him that you were climbing out of Naina's room in the middle of the night." Aalekh reported.

Raj groaned, "I swear I'm going to kill Yudi, why did he need to tell Navin that? Now Navin probably thinks that we were…" he turned red, unable to complete the sentence.

"He definitely does," Aalekh replied, "In fact he's sent me to find out what really happened, so what do you want me to tell him?"

"For god sakes tell him that I only went up there to talk to her and that nothing else happened. Hopefully he'll believe you and I'll be able to go to bed tonight without worrying that he's going to smother me with a pillow in my sleep."

Which judging by the expression on Navin's face every time he'd seen Raj for the last two days, was a very real possibility.

Aalekh went off to tell Navin that he could relax, and Raj decided that he would avoid the mess until the job was done. After all, eating dinner would be a lot more enjoyable if Navin was over his bad mood.

Instead he headed to the phone intending to call Naina. It had been less than two days since she left and he was already missing her like hell. He just hoped that she had some holidays coming up so that she would be able to come visit.

The only problem was that now he'd figured out he was in love with her, he didn't know how he should be acting. Now rather than pretending that he was in love with Naina while pretending not to be, he only had to pretend that he wasn't in love with her.

At least it simplified things.

Well, slightly.

Raj dialled the number and counted the seconds it took for her to pick up the phone. She had called briefly the night before to say she arrived home safely but only Navin had spoken to her.

"Hey Naina, it's me." He said quietly, recognising her voice as soon as she picked up.

"I've been waiting for you to call," Naina told him, "Why didn't you talk to me yesterday when I called to say I arrived safely."

"Because Navin has suddenly discovered his inner over protective brother and I feared for my life if I tried to talk to you in front of him."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning that Yudi told him about me climbing out of your room and ever since then he hasn't stopped glaring at me. I'm honestly worried about my safety tonight, if his mood doesn't improve I might ask Abhimanyu if I can swap rooms with him."

"Is it really that bad?" Naina asked in disbelief, "I would've thought he'd be happy that you'd gone to my room, wouldn't he have thought it was a good sign?"

"Naina, like all brothers, Navin would like his sister to somehow get married without ever having to actually date anyone." Raj told her in a very no nonsense tone.

"That's ridiculous! He was the one who set up this whole thing in the first place, he can't change his mind now!" Suddenly Naina was very offended, "He should trust me to not do anything wrong."

"Well it's not just you who's upset by this, I thought that Navin trusted me more too." Raj told her, feeling frustrated by the whole situation. After all, Navin's plan finally seemed to be working, at least in Raj's case, and now he had decided that he didn't want them together anymore.

"Well why don't you just go and tell him that nothing happened between us and it was all perfectly innocent?" Naina asked him, "At least that way you can sleep without fearing for your safety."

"Well I could tell him if he came and asked me, but right now he's pretending not to actually know, and I'm pretending not to know that he's angry."

"And how does that work?" Naina asked, suddenly confused.

"Well I avoid him whenever possible and he only glares at me when he thinks I'm not looking."

"This is ridiculous," Naina muttered, "Even if anything had happened then it's none of his business. I'm an adult and I can do whatever I want. I'm not going to stop dating you just because he says so!"

Raj couldn't believe how much his heart leapt as she said this, he wasn't sure whether he should remind Naina that they were only pretending to date, or check whether they were actually dating now.

"Uh Naina, we… I mean, we're not really…"

"Oh, right…" Naina sounded a little embarrassed at how carried away she'd gotten, "But he doesn't know that, and he can't expect me to decide whether I'm going to get married to a guy or not without dating him."

"Of course not," Raj told her in a reassuring tone, "Don't worry, I'm sure that Aalekh will get this whole thing sorted out and Navin will back to normal in no time at all."

"Well he'd better be," Naina replied, "I don't want him giving you any trouble, as I've told you before, nobody messes with Naina Singh Ahluwalia's boyfriend, even if it is her brother."

Raj couldn't help grinning at this statement. The thing that made him grin even more was that this time she hadn't bothered to say 'pretend' boyfriend. He certainly wasn't going to correct her.

"Well I'll go now, Naina. If I don't get to the mess soon then Major Nair will tell me I'm too late to get any dinner."

"Alright," Naina replied, sounding a bit reluctant. "In that case I hope Aalekh is successful with Navin, and he doesn't give you any more trouble."

"I'll talk to you soon then."

"Okay… bye."

A smile on his face, Raj left for the mess. Whether Navin glared at him or not, there was no way he would ever willingly give up Naina.

/

Meanwhile Aalekh was doing his best to convince Navin that Raj had no bad intentions where Naina was concerned.

"Dekh Navin, you know Raj. He's crazy about Naina but he's not going to do anything that he shouldn't. He honestly just went to talk to her in private while nobody else was there to interrupt."

"What did he want to tell her about then?" Navin asked, still not entirely convinced.

"Well I think he wanted to tell her about his feelings…" Aalekh was able to say it convincingly, after all it wasn't entirely a lie. He was sure that Raj had wanted to say something to Naina before he'd climbed in the window and ruined everything. Navin didn't need to know that the darpoke had probably lost all his courage afterwards and not said anything.

Suddenly for the first time in two days, Navin started to look more relaxed, he even looked like he wanted to smile. "Really? Are you sure? So then our plan has worked?"

Aalekh just shrugged, if he couldn't figure it out for himself then he didn't deserve any help.

Navin frowned again then, "But even if Raj likes her, how do I know that he wants to get married to her? How do we find out what his intentions are?"

Tanisha nodded, agreeing with him, and Aalekh laughed, wondering how their plan would ever have worked if they hadn't had his help. The two of them really were hopeless.

"You really haven't noticed have you?" he asked them, "Then again you've been so busy glaring at Raj and he's been so busy avoiding you that I don't know how you would."

"Noticed what?" Tanisha asked, genuinely confused as to what Aalekh was talking about.

"Noticed that for the past two days, the ring that Raj usually wears has been missing from his finger." Aalekh told them, and then not trusting them to work it out for themselves, "And that when she said goodbye to you, Naina was trying very hard to hide her hand from you."

It took a moment for it to sink in, but when it did, Navin and Tanu grinned at each other.

They knew how serious their friend was about things like this, Raj giving Naina his ring was almost as good as the two of them getting engaged.

Everything was forgiven.

Raj was once again Navin's favourite person in KMA.


	17. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16:**

The change in Navin's behaviour in just one hour was so extreme, that Raj remained a little scared. Now instead of constantly frowning and glaring at him, Navin couldn't stop grinning at him instead. In fact it seemed as if Navin was constantly having to stop himself from hugging Raj, since he kept making motions as if he wanted to and then sitting down again.

"What on earth did you say to him?" Raj asked Aalekh before going to bed, he definitely preferred the new Navin to the old one, but it was freaking him out a bit.

"I pointed out to him that you'd given your ring to Naina, which meant that you were obviously serious about her." Aalekh told him in a very no nonsense way with a shrug.

Raj just stared at him, "How did you know that I…"

"Just because you don't tell me something, it doesn't mean that I won't notice." Aalekh warned Raj, trying to hide a smile, "Just be glad that Navin is in a good mood again. After all, I didn't need to lie to him did I?" Aalekh's eyes twinkled at this, and Raj wondered whether he should tell his friend the truth about his feelings. However he decided that it was still far too early to do so, especially when he didn't know if Naina felt the same way or if she was just trying to make their mission a success.

So Raj stayed silent for the time being, and headed off to his room where a grinning Navin wished him good night very cheerfully before turning out the light.

Raj needn't have worried, Aalekh already knew perfectly well what was in his heart.

/

Naina had just gotten the photos from Republic Day developed and had picked them up on the way to college. Sitting with her friends at lunch time she flicked through them, smiling when she found the one she had been looking for. Raj stood with her with his arm around her shoulders as they both smiled. She had asked Neelu to take it, thinking at the time that it would be the perfect photo for Navin to notice when she sent him a copy of the prints.

Now Naina stared down at the photo somewhat dreamily, before glancing at the ring which was still on her finger. The only time she removed it was when she needed to bathe, the rest of the time it remained there even though it was clearly a man's ring and didn't really suit her hand at all.

"Hey Naina, what are you looking at?" Her friend Maya greeted her as she came to sit with her on the grass.

"Photos from Republic Day." Naina told her, "I went to my brother's academy for the ceremony there, it was fantastic."

"Well hand them over," Maya told her, "I don't mind seeing pictures of cute army cadets."

Reluctantly Naina handed the photos over, slipping the one of her and Raj back into the pile.

Maya had been a friend of Naina's ever since high school, so she recognised Navin and commented on how cute he still was, giving Naina a sense of pride.

"Who's this girl?" she asked when she reached a picture of Navin and Tanu together, Navin's arm around Tanu's waist.

"That's my future sister-in-law Tanisha," Naina told Maya proudly, "Don't they make a cute couple?"

Maya sighed melodramatically, "All the good ones are always taken." She complained, "There go my hopes for your brother."

Naina just laughed, knowing that Maya wasn't really serious.

They went through the rest of the photos and Naina pointed out Raj, Aalekh, Neelu, Yudi, Abhimanyu and all of the rest to Maya as her friend exclaimed about how cute army guys were and how she wished Naina had invited her to the Republic Day ceremony as well. Naina certainly wasn't going to disagree with her about the cuteness.

It was when they reached the photo of Raj and Naina together that Maya really became interested.

"And who is this and why does he have his arm around you?" Maya asked her, "His name was Raj, right?"

"Yes," Naina confirmed, "That's Raj and he's my…" she suddenly blushed, not sure why she was feeling so embarrassed and what she should actually be introducing him as.

"Ooooo, so that's what's been going on," Maya teased her, "Well I must admit that he's cute, and he looks like a nice guy too, you've made a good choice, Naina."

Naina just smiled, but didn't correct her. After all, what harm was there in Maya thinking that Raj was her actual boyfriend?

However the thought nagged at her all day throughout her classes and as she walked home. Why hadn't she corrected her friend? Why had she felt so proud at the thought of him as her boyfriend? Had she gotten so caught up in this mission that she had begun to believe that the lie was the truth?

However Naina didn't have much time to ponder these things, or work out what her answer was, because as soon as she reached home a nasty surprise was waiting for her.

She stepped in the door, took one look at the person sitting on the couch and exclaimed, "What are you doing here?" in quite a rude tone of voice.

"Naina beti, that's no way to speak to guests." Her mother told her, indicating the two people in their lounge room. "Why don't you go and change into something nice and then come down and join us."

It suddenly became very obvious to Naina exactly what they were doing there, and why her mother was sending her to get changed into something 'nice'. Well she wasn't about to play this game, especially not when she had already put so much effort into her own plans.

"Actually Ma, I think what I'm wearing is perfectly fine." Naina replied, and sat down on the chair opposite. "And you still haven't told me what our 'guests' are doing here."

She took the opportunity to glare at the boy sitting in front of her, hoping that he seriously regretted coming here at all.

However he just grinned at her, obviously not realising exactly how unwanted he really was.

"Naina, would you come with me to the kitchen for a minute?" her mother asked and Naina knew that it wasn't a request. She got up and followed her in, standing expectantly until her mother said what she wanted to.

"Naina," her mother whispered to her fiercely, "Don't be so rude, Amardeep and his mummy have come here to make a proposal for you. You can at least be polite and consider it."

"But Ma, I…"

"No buts, we'll listen to what they say and then we'll make a decision, now go upstairs and put on something nice."

Glaring at her mother this time, Naina went upstairs and selected one of her most unflattering and old salwar kameezes, one which she had been planning to throw out for a long time. She certainly wasn't going to encourage any of them in this idiocy.

Sitting back down on the couch beside her mother, Naina tried not to slump too much in her seat. She had never thought that this idiot could do something like this, she thought she had scared him off. She just wished that when Navin had set up his plan he had told her mother so that these mix ups wouldn't happen. Naina found herself thinking that if only Raj was here this wouldn't have happened, he would've figured something out, made a plan to get her out of this situation. Instead she had to sit here with this stupid farm boy and his mummy while they made a proposal for her.

"So as I was saying, Mrs Ahluwalia," Huda's mummy continued, "Our Amardeep is such a smart boy, such a good boy, and so helpful too. When he's not studying at his college he's always helping out on our farm. He's the best son that anybody could wish for."

Naina felt like rolling her eyes and barely resisted. Of course she hadn't mentioned the fact that he was extremely annoying, and liked to follow girls around when he was very much unwanted. Of course this didn't make it into Amardeep's list of extraordinary achievements as the perfect son and future son-in-law.

"And he's coming second in his year at the moment, I'm sure he would be topping it if he was able to give more time to his studies, but he spends so much time helping us that he has less time to study."

Either that or he spends far too much time flirting with girls and stalking them…

"Ever since he came back from his holidays here, our Amardeep hasn't been able to stop talking about your Naina. He told me, 'Mummyji, that's the girl I want to marry and no other, please go and talk to her parents as soon as possible', and I really agree with him, what a sweet girl, what a good pair they make." She smiled at Naina and Naina tried to smile back, but it came out as more of a grimace.

"And Naina will be very comfortable with us," Huda's mummy continued, "We have a large house, two factories, a farm and ten buffaloes. We'll give her everything she could possibly want, she'll be like our own daughter."

Great, this was it. Naina was going to be spending the rest of her life milking buffaloes and making lassi. All of her dreams of doing her MBA, having a career, everything was about to be ruined.

And Raj… she couldn't even finish that thought she was so upset.

Naina glanced over at her mother and could see that she was quite impressed. After all, it wasn't everyday that somebody with two factories and ten buffaloes came to propose. Naina supposed that this was the most impressive proposal that she had ever gotten. Her chances at escaping were quickly slipping away.

"Well why don't we let the children have some time alone and talk about it amongst themselves, Naina, go and show Amardeep the garden."

Naina got up from her seat on the couch and without waiting for him, stomped out to the garden. She only waited a second after he arrived, and shut the door behind him to begin speaking.

"What the hell are you doing?" she asked angrily, "Did I ever give you any sign that I wanted to get married to you? Because I don't want to get married to you! What made you think that I would ever accept this proposal?" 

"Because it's not you that has to accept the proposal," he told her with a smirk, "It's your parents and I don't think there'll be any problem from them. Give in, Nainaji, we'll have a happy life together, I'll give you everything that you could ever want."

"And have you forgotten that I have a boyfriend already who I love very much?" Naina asked, "How could you be so shameless as to think I'd just leave him?"

"Stop pretending, Nainaji." Huda told her, perfectly relaxed. "I know that he's not your boyfriend, my cousin Mahi goes to your college, she told me that he's not your boyfriend at all, just one of your brother's friends who came to visit."

That's it, Mahi was dead. Naina was going to kill her slowly and painfully, the traitor.

"I don't want to get married," Naina told him, "And especially not to you. I want to finish my education and then I want to get a job, maybe even start my own business. Being your wife is not the kind of life that I want."

"Of course you can have a job," Huda told her cheerfully, "We're not an old fashioned family, with your education you can definitely manage one of our factories."

"Just what I always wanted…" Naina muttered, this was going from bad to worse.

"Well now that it's all sorted out, shall we go back inside, Nainaji?" Huda suggested.

"No, it's not all…" Naina started to say, but he had already walked back inside.

Nobody was prepared to listen to her and things just kept going from bad to worse. If Raj was here, or if Navin was here, or even if Aalekh was here…

But they weren't, she would have to somehow handle this by herself.

Going back inside reluctantly, Naina sat back down on the couch with her mother, resolutely staring at her feet. She didn't even want to see his face right now she was so angry.

"Well we'll be going then," Huda's mummy announced cheerfully, "Please let us know what you decide, and I hope that soon our relationship will be much closer."

Naina's mother walked them to the door while Naina kicked the coffee table in frustration and then winced as she hurt her toe.

Her mother came back in, in a very good mood. "What an excellent proposal," she told Naina, "I never would've expected it. The boy is young and handsome and smart and the family is good too, I don't think we can pass this up."

Naina was horrified, it looked like her mother had already made her decision.

"But Ma, I don't want to marry him!" she exclaimed, "I would be miserable with him, our personalities completely clash. And I don't want to live on a farm and milk buffaloes!"

"Don't be silly, Naina." Her mother told her cheerfully, "His mother was saying that you could work in their business, so your education won't be going to waste. And you'll get used to each other after awhile. I know you don't want to get married yet but you have to eventually, after all we have to arrange Navin and Tanu's marriage soon too."

"So that's it, you've decided to get rid of me." Naina announced melodramatically, hoping that emotional blackmail was the best way to stop this, "A daughter is such a burden that you'll give me away to the first stranger who asks."

"Naina, don't be so filmy." Her mother told her sternly, "They're hardly the first ones who have asked. We've already rejected six proposals for you, but this is the best one so far, I don't know if an opportunity like this will come again."

"But what about what Baba wants?" Naina asked her desperately.

"Your Baba will agree too, I'm sure of it." Her mother told her confidently.

"What about Navin? Please Ma, just ask him once, shouldn't my older brother help to make the decision too?" This was Naina's last chance, Navin was the only one who could save her now. She was sure that he wouldn't want all his planning ruined. And surely he would much rather Raj as a brother in law than this stupid Huda.

"Navin will respect whatever decision we make, there's no need to ask him." Her mother told her calmly, as if reassuring a child. "I'm sure that he will agree with us that this is the best possible proposal that you could get."

"But Ma, I…"

"No more buts, Naina, we'll discuss it with your father and make a decision. I don't know why you're so against the idea."

"Because I can't get married to him! I just can't!" Naina wailed, wanting to stamp her foot for extra emphasis but deciding that it wouldn't be very mature.

"And why not, Naina?" Her mother asked her, "Is there something that you're not telling me?"

Naina panicked. She had to stop this marriage one way or another, no matter what it took.

"Because I'm in love with someone else!" she blurted out.

Her mother just stared at her, and for a moment Naina was worried, but then she smiled. "Well why didn't you tell me, Beti? We're not against love marriages. Who's the boy?"

"I'm in love with Navin's friend Raj," Naina said all in one breath, "And we were planning to get married after he graduates."

Naina couldn't believe what she had just done. She had been so panicked that she hadn't even been able to ask Raj for help or tell him about this, and now she had just announced that they wanted to get married.

This was soooooooooooooooooooo not the plan.

"Well you should've told us earlier, Naina!" her mother exclaimed, utterly delighted, "He's such a lovely boy, how could we object to a son-in-law like that? I'll have to talk to his parents as soon as possible and…" her mother walked off, listing a hundred tasks she would have to complete now that Naina had chosen a boy to get married to.

Naina just stood there in shock, unable to believe that this had all happened so fast within one afternoon.

She had just sabotaged her own plan to avoid marriage.

And she had involved Raj without even asking him. She had no idea how he would react to the fact she'd just announced they were planning to get married.

As Naina slumped down on the couch with her head in her hands, only one thought went through her mind.

Navin and Tanu were going to be so happy.

Operation Marriage had finally turned out to be a success.


	18. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17:**

Raj was just sitting down to do some study in the mess before dinner when suddenly there was a loud disturbance. Navin and Tanu walked in, both looking incredibly happy, Navin whistling loudly. Raj was just shaking his head at their behaviour when Navin clapped his hands to get everybody's attention.

"Suriji, serve chai to everybody on my behalf!" He announced happily, and Raj thought that Navin was just a little bit too happy about him giving his ring to Naina. This really was an over reaction. He wondered how many more days this was going to carry on for.

He tried to slump in his seat and hide behind his book to escape from their notice but it was far too late, Tanu had already spotted him and was pointing him out to Navin. Raj wondered if he could escape somehow as he had a very bad feeling about what was about to happen, but as he got out of his chair intending to make an exit, he found Navin in front of him.

"Raj, mere yaar, mere doost, mere humdum, I love you!" Navin announced with so much feeling and so loudly, that everybody in the mess turned around. Just as Raj was trying to decide how he should be responding to this, Navin grabbed him in a tight hug.

Spotting Aalekh over Navin's shoulder, Raj made an expression that clearly said, 'What the hell is going on here', but Aalekh gestured helplessly. He was completely and utterly clueless about what had gotten into Navin.

"Uh, that's very nice Navin, and I love you too of course," Raj said, patting his friend on the back gently and hoping that it would calm him down, "But would you like to explain exactly why you've decided that you love me so much today?"

"Oh Raj, I'm so happy!" Navin told him, finally letting go of Raj "And Tanu is too of course!" Tanisha nodded enthusiastically and suddenly Raj found himself being hugged by her instead. Right, far too much hugging without knowing the reason why… His feeling about this was getting worse and worse…

"Yes… and why are you happy?" Raj asked, "Have I missed something here?" He glanced desperately at Aalekh, wanting some help, but Aalekh wasn't about to step in. He was completely on his own.

"Well we've been waiting for so long…" At Tanu's cough, Navin quickly changed the sentence, "I mean, it's such a surprise, but of course it's the most wonderful surprise that we could ever have gotten! I can't believe you hid this from us all this time!"

"Navin, exactly what surprise are you talking about? What have I hidden from you? There's nothing that I haven't…" Raj suddenly stopped talking.

Oh no.

It couldn't be that…

"Well there's no point in hiding it anymore from anyone!" Navin told him, utterly ecstatic, and then as if to prove his point, he climbed onto the table that Raj had been sitting at and gave a sharp whistle to get everybody's attention. Which he hadn't really needed to do, because everyone had been staring at them from the time he declared that he loved Raj.

"Listen up, everyone!" Navin announced, "Not only the chai, tonight you can have whatever you want at Tanu's and my expense. And do you know why? I have a very exciting announcement to make!"

Raj really thought that it would be best if he ran out of the room right now before Navin said whatever it was that he wanted to, but the exit was blocked by everybody who had gathered around to watch.

"I would like you all to know, that my best friend Raj is now officially going to become my brother in law!" Navin announced and the room erupted into applause and whistles.

Well except for one person who stood silent and in utter shock.

Raj just stared at Navin as if he'd lost his mind. As far as he knew, Naina and he were only pretending to be dating, and now Navin had just announced that they were going to get married.

There had to be some mistake… some misunderstanding… Did Naina even know about this?

Navin climbed down from the table and came over to hug Raj again, a huge grin on his face.

"It's so wonderful, isn't it Raj?" he asked, "We're actually going to be properly related!"

"But Navin, me and Naina, we're not… I mean… it's not… I didn't…." Raj was still in so much shock that he couldn't even get the words out.

"Don't worry Raj, you don't have to pretend anymore, I'm really not angry about you hiding it!" Navin told him, "And Naina has already told everything to Ma."

"Naina told everything?" Raj asked in disbelief. As far as he knew, he was the only one that was actually in love in this fake relationship. "Exactly what did Naina tell her?" Raj asked curiously, still having no idea how this could've happened.

"That you're in love with each other and are planning to get married after you finish your training!"

In love with each other… could Naina also be… but if she was really in love with him then why had she chosen to tell her mother before she actually told him?

Something had to be wrong.

Raj laughed nervously, once again glancing over at Aalekh whose expression clearly said that Raj was on his own with this one.

He was trying to think of something to say when an orderly came into the room and announced that he had a phone call.

"I'll just… go and get that…" Raj told them, quite subdued, and then practically ran from the mess.

He just hoped that it was Naina on the other end of the line so that he could finally get some answers.

/

"Hell…"

"Oh god, Raj, thank goodness you were there. I've got something to tell you and I'm not sure how you're going to react."

Naina hadn't even let him finish saying hello she had been so desperate to talk to him, and the sentence had come out in one big rush.

"Could what you have to tell me be the same thing that Navin just announced to the whole canteen?"

"Uh, Navin? Oh god… he didn't did he? What did he say?"

"Well, by now the entire academy knows that I'm going to be his brother-in-law." Raj told her. Honestly he wasn't sure whether he should be upset, or amused, or worried, or hopeful.

Raj could hear Naina groaning on the other end of the line, when she finally spoke she sounded very worried.

"You're not angry about this, are you?" Naina asked him, "I'm so, so sorry that this happened. I didn't even get a chance to speak to you… and I just panicked… and I was thinking about how much I wished you were there with me… and then I just said it… and Ma… how could she even… And I really didn't mean to…"

"Naina, just take a deep breath, relax and tell me what happened." Raj tried to calm her, as she was currently making absolutely no sense whatsoever.

"Well everything was going fine," Naina told him, "I'd just gotten the photos back from Republic Day, and you know there's a really nice one of us together, and I was thinking that I'd send you a copy…"

"Naina, could you please just tell me what happened?" Raj asked, knowing that she'd gone off on a tangent that had nothing to do with it.

"Right, of course." Naina tried to calm herself down, and took another deep breath. "Well I got home and there sitting on my couch was Huda and his mummy."

"Huda?" Raj asked her, "Who's Huda?"

"That guy who was following me in Nainital, you know, you pretended to be my boyfriend to get rid of him."

"Oh, right." Raj did remember now, "So what was he doing in your house with his mother?"

"Raj, think about it, what do you think he was doing in my house with his mother?"

"That…" Raj was honestly angry, and had to stop himself from saying some very rude words about Huda. "Even after he knew that we were dating?"

"Well that's the problem, his stupid cousin goes to my college and she told him that we weren't really dating."

"That…" Raj once again stopped himself, "So then what happened?"

"Well then they went on and on about all the buffaloes they have, and their factories, and Ma decided that she was going to condemn me to a life with him! I couldn't do it, Raj, I just couldn't!" Naina was starting to get hysterical again, and Raj knew he would have to calm her down if he wanted the rest of the story.

"Buffaloes? How did buffaloes come into this story?"

"Well they have ten! Ten! Can you imagine? I don't even like buffaloes! I don't want to live with ten buffaloes and have to milk them!"

"Naina, just calm down and take another deep breath," Raj told her, "Nobody is going to make you milk buffaloes, I won't let them. Just tell me what happened next."

"Well they left, and Ma thought that it was a really good proposal, she wanted to accept it and she wasn't listening to any of my protests…. And all I could think of was how much I wished you were there with me, and I just said it. I told her that we were in love and wanted to get married."

Raj sighed with relief, at least he finally had the full story now.

"And she's happy with that?" he asked, "She wants us to get married?"

"Happy? She's over the moon!" Naina told him, "She wants to arrange our marriage as soon as possible, in fact I think she's already deciding on caterers."

"Well… does she want veg or non-veg?" Raj asked, trying to lighten up the mood a little bit.

"I can't believe you're joking about this!" Naina exclaimed, "I didn't even ask you about this, and now you're going to be forced to get married to me. Aren't you even a little bit angry that I did this?"

"Naina," Raj told her, feeling ridiculous for smiling despite the present circumstances, "I can think of far worse fates than being married to you."

"Oh," Naina replied, and was at a loss for how to reply. "Oh…"

"After everything that we've been through together," Raj continued, "The least that I can do is save you from a life of milking buffaloes."

"Then… we're really going to get married?" Naina asked him, Raj was relieved that she sounded much calmer and not as upset as he thought she might be.

"I don't know, Naina, if you want then we can try and figure out a way to stop it. It's your decision and I'll help you whatever you choose."

"It's not that I don't want to marry you," Naina admitted, sounding a little embarrassed to be saying it, "It was just that I didn't want to get married just yet. Do you think that if we asked them they would at least wait to get us married until I'd finished my education?"

"So then, you do want to marry me?" Raj asked, feeling stunned by this. As soon as he had heard the story about how it happened, he had expected Naina to resist the wedding and try to find ways to avoid it. Now he was starting to feel some hope that maybe, just maybe she might feel the same way about him.

"Raj, I can think of far worse fates than being married to you," she told him softly, repeating his words from earlier. Then her tone changed to a more mischievous one. "Like being married to Huda." She added, and Raj started laughing.

"Well I'm glad that I'm at least a better choice than him." Raj told her, "Otherwise what hope do I have in life?"

Naina laughed at this too, and then sobered up, realising that this was a very important conversation for them to be having.

"Raj, it's not just that… I really do… I mean I…" she stopped suddenly, not quite sure of what it was that she was trying to say or whether she should say it on the phone or not. "Well you know, I… you're…"

"It's okay, Naina," Raj told her, and she could swear that it sounded like he was smiling, "We'll talk about this when we meet in person, I have something to tell you but I don't want to say it on the phone."

"Something to tell me? What?" Suddenly Naina thought that it was very important that she find out right this instant.

"Wait until we see each other properly, it's not the right time now."

"Oh, okay, well then…" She couldn't stop thinking about what it was that he had to tell her, and she found herself impatient to hear it. She wanted to meet him as soon as possible.

"I think I'd better go back to the canteen before your brother makes the family bankrupt by treating too many people to chai." Raj joked, trying to keep the mood light before he hung up.

"Typical," Naina said, sounding amused, "He can never keep his happiness to himself."

"Well at least he's happy for our sake, and he really has worked hard for it." Raj told her, "He and Tanu must be ecstatic that their mission was successful."

"You know Raj, I'm not too disappointed that Operation Confusion failed," Naina admitted, "Maybe Operation Marriage really was the right mission in the first place."

"You mean…" Raj started to ask her.

"I'll talk to you later," Naina told him, and hung up the phone quickly before he could say anything else.

Raj walked back to the canteen in a daze, thinking about the last thing that Naina said. She felt that Operation Marriage was the right mission, that meant that she was happy to marry him, that meant that… A grin spread across his face. The next time they saw each other he would tell her everything about his feelings. After all, if it wasn't time to confess your love when you were about to get married then when was it time?

He was going to get married.

To Naina.

Operation Confusion had been completely abandoned.

Walking back into the canteen, Raj witnessed Navin promise Aalekh as many bottles of daru as he could ever wish for, and smiled. Navin still had no idea that Aalekh had been playing both sides the entire time.

"Navin, could I speak to you for a minute outside?" Raj requested, "You too, Tanu."

Looking at Raj curiously, they both followed him outside and he led them into the grounds so that they were away from where anybody could hear.

Navin momentarily became worried, it was obvious that Raj wanted to discuss something serious, and Navin suspected that he had just gotten off the phone with Naina. There wasn't any misunderstanding was there?

As much as Navin had started this operation in order so that he and Tanu could marry, now he was just as worried for both Raj and Naina's sakes. The more that he thought about it, the more that he really wanted Raj for a brother-in-law. It would just be perfect, he would never have to worry about his sister's happiness and they could all be together for the holidays.

Navin was just worrying that Raj was about to say that they weren't actually getting married when his friend finally spoke.

"I just talked to Naina," Raj told them, "We weren't really planning to tell anybody yet, but your mother was thinking of accepting another proposal so she thought it would be best to let her know. That's why I was a bit shocked when you announced it, since I hadn't been expecting it just yet."

Navin and Tanu both sighed with relief, at least this meant that Raj didn't actually object to the wedding.

"So yes," Raj told him and a grin spread across his face, "I will be becoming your brother in law."

Navin let out a whoop of joy and this time Raj was glad to hug him. He knew that he and Naina were getting married in quite strange circumstances, considering that they'd only been pretending to be dating and hadn't even said that they loved each other, been on a real date or even kissed yet.

But he was still happy.

"And you'll soon be my official sister-in-law." Raj told Tanu happily, and she gave him a quick hug.

"Just think," Tanu said excitedly, "Maybe we could even have a joint wedding… wouldn't that be fantastic?"

Navin and Raj both gave her looks that clearly said they didn't think so.

"Tanu… way too filmy." Navin told her, and Tanu had to agree, he was definitely right.

Raj was still standing there with a silly grin on his face, when Navin decided it was a good idea to discuss the next important topic.

"So now that it's all decided, you should inform your parents. Ma and Baba want to meet them as soon as possible."

"My parents?" Raj repeated dumbly as if he has no idea what Navin was talking about.

"Well yes Raj, generally people do tell their parents when they want to get married, and then the parents sit down and discuss everything. You know how it works."

Raj just kept staring at Navin as if he'd gone crazy. His parents… he hadn't even thought about his parents or how they were going to react to this.

Suddenly Raj began to feel very, very nervous.

"You know Navin, I was thinking, wouldn't it be good if Naina and I just eloped? You know, got married quietly and then told my parents?"

"Don't be ridiculous, Raj. You might be my best friend but I'm not allowing my sister to elope with anybody. You two will definitely get married properly."

"Ah, Navin, I really don't think this is a good idea." Raj told him, "If we tell my parents then this marriage is going to be over before it's even begun."

"Raj, all I know is that if you want to marry Naina you're going to have to find some way to manage your parents." Navin replied, "They can't be that bad, can they?"

Oh yes they could, and Raj knew it very well.

That was it, finally when Naina and he had decided that they were ready to get married, he realised that it wasn't actually going to be possible.

Operation Marriage had just been derailed.

Operation Confusion was back on track.

And the real shame was, that everybody involved would've preferred it to be the other way around.

/

Meanwhile, the next day Naina had no idea that anything had changed, since she had left for college before Raj could get an opportunity to call her.

She was going to get married.

And the funny thing was that she wasn't even upset about it.

In fact she was feeling strangely… happy.

After all these months of planning and scheming, surely she should feel a little bit of regret that none of her plans had worked out?

But all Naina could think of was Raj's voice on the phone saying that he could think of worse fates than being married to her. And he had said that he had something to tell her…

Naina just hoped that she was right about what it was.

Because ever since she had declared to her mother that she and Raj were in love and were planning to get married she had become more and more sure that this had been exactly the right thing to say.

Arriving at college, Naina's first task was to go and find Mahi, who was sitting completely unaware with her friends, gossiping about boys.

"Ahem." Naina announced her presence and everybody turned around, smiling and welcoming her.

"Well everybody, I would like to make a very important announcement." Naina told them, "I'm getting married."

The group erupted in squeals and cheers, before Naina held up a hand to silence them. "And no, Mahi, it is NOT to your cousin who came to my house yesterday in the mistaken belief that I was single and interested in him." Naina glared at Mahi, who at least looked slightly guilty.

"Then who are you getting married to?" One of the other girls asked.

Naina smiled, her entire face brightening with the expression.

"His name is Rajveer Singh Shekawat." She announced, "And I love him very much."

And this time, it was neither a lie, nor an excuse.

It was the absolute truth.


	19. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18:**

"Aalekh, you have to help me." Raj asked his friend desperately, "This is never going to work out."

Aalekh looked him up and down. "I'm a bit confused," he told Raj, "What am I meant to be helping you with? Stopping the wedding or making sure that it goes ahead?"

Raj could feel himself blushing. After all, Aalekh was the only one in the academy who knew the entire truth about how all this had started, and now Raj had to confess to him that he was actually in love with Naina.

"Make sure that it goes ahead." He said very quickly, and a grin spread across Aalekh's face.

"So, Operation Confustion…?"

"Is completely abandoned, from now on we're all working on Operation Marriage."

Aalekh just grinned even more, and pulled his chair closer to Raj's.

"Shabash," he told him, "At least you've finally gotten some sense."

Raj stared at Aalekh in shock, not able to believe that his friend wasn't surprised. "But you're…" he started to say.

Aalekh just shrugged. "I knew it would work out like this all along."

"Great," Raj told him, "Then please find a way to convince my parents to agree for this marriage so that it really can work out."

"Tell them that she's pregnant," Aalekh suggested, "Then they won't be able to refuse."

"Yeah, great suggestion, Aalekh." Raj said sarcastically, "And what do I do in the meantime when Navin tries to kill me, and both of our parents decide never to forgive us."

Aalekh was just considering this problem when Yudi came over to join them, sitting down in an empty chair.

"Dude, I heard you're getting married, congratulations!" he told Raj, leaning back in the chair.

"Yeah well, no thanks to you, you khabri." Raj told him, glaring slightly.

"What are you talking about?" Yudi asked, trying to look innocent, "What did I ever do to you?"

"You sold me out, that's what you did! I know you told Navin about me climbing out of Naina's window, I was scared for an entire day thanks to you!"

"Sorry about that, bro." Yudi told him a little sheepishly. "Actually they promised to help me win over Shalini if I found out about you two."

"Well did it work?" Raj asked, less angry now. After all, everything had worked out just fine, there was no point in staying angry at Yudi.

"Well… she has agreed to go out with me this Saturday." Yudi told them with a grin, and Raj slapped him on the back, genuinely happy for his friend. Aalekh also smiled, nodding his congratulations.

"Well maybe you want to join us for this planning session then," Raj told Yudi. "We're trying to work out how to convince my parents to agree to my marriage with Naina."

"Simple," Yudi told him, "Lie to them that her parents are millionaires."

Raj gave Yudi a look of disbelief.

"Seriously bro, it's not such a bad idea." Yudi told him, "I'm thinking of doing exactly the same thing if I ever have to convince my parents about my marriage, I think they've got exactly the same attitude as yours. It's a millionaire's daughter or nothing."

"Yudi, I can't lie to my parents. They're going to figure out that Naina's parents aren't millionaires, and they've already met Navin." Raj told him, "Give me a better suggestion."

Yudi leaned back in his chair and thought about it for a moment. "Either elope or threaten to kill yourself. Even then it might not work, so you might want to take a bit of poison just so that they believe it."

"That's it, you're both banned from making any more suggestions." Raj told Yudi, "Navin has already ruled out eloping and I don't really want to poison myself."

"Then you're just going to have to tell them the truth and hope that they truly care about your happiness." Yudi told him, and walked away.

Raj laughed.

As if that was ever going to happen.

But he really had no other option left.

/

And so half an hour later he found himself dialling home, praying for the best.

He had to go through his father's secretary before he could actually talk to his father, and Raj waited nervously.

"Hi Dad," he said when his father finally picked up, "How are you?"

"I'm fine, Raj Beta," His father replied, "Is everything alright, have you run out of money?" 

"No dad, I've got more than enough money." Raj said, rolling his eyes and thinking that of course that was the first thing that his dad would want to ask. "Actually I wanted to talk to you about something important."

"Important? Does that mean that you're finally ready to leave the army and join our business instead?" His father asked him hopefully.

"No dad, actually it's about… well it's about my marriage." Raj said, thinking that it was best to get it over with.

"Your marriage? Then you liked Sahni's daughter?" His father asked him happily, "I thought that things hadn't worked out between the two of you."

"No dad, not Sahni's daughter." Raj told him, wishing that his father would let him finish saying what he wanted to. "Actually there's a girl that I like… and I want to get married to her."

There, he had said it now. It couldn't be unsaid. And on the other end of the phone, his father was silent.

"Who is this girl, Raj? What's her family like?"

"Well actually she's my friend Navin's sister," Raj admitted, "You remember Navin, Dad, you met him when you came to the Independence Day celebrations last year."

"Oh, that Navin." His father sounded quite uninterested. Raj was sure it was probably because he'd worked out that Navin did not belong to any business person's family. "Well where did you meet his sister and how did this happen?"

"Actually dad, we met when I went with Navin to his house for Diwali, and ever since then we've liked each other. You know Naina is currently studying for her business degree, she's a very smart girl and…"

"Raj, what do you want me to do about all this?"

Raj felt like screaming, this was really not going to work out.

"Well dad, I want to marry her, so obviously it would be good if you and Ma could come and meet her parents and discuss it."

"Raj are you really sure about this?" His father asked him, "I mean you're rather young to be making decisions about marriage, and you haven't known this girl for very long."

Well that certainly hadn't stopped his dad from trying to arrange Raj's marriage to Neelu, whom he'd never even met.

"Dad, I really love her." Raj told him honestly, hoping that his father would hear the sincerity in his voice. "Just meet her once at least."

"Alright," his father agreed, "No promises, but we'll certainly meet the girl and her family. Arrange it for next weekend and we'll come to Ambala."

"Thanks Dad, I know you'll love her." Raj promised, even as he suspected that his parents wouldn't be the least bit interested in trying to love Naina. "I'll arrange it and let you know the details."

"Fine, call me back soon." His father told him and hung up.

Raj sighed, but he wasn't sure whether it was in relief or disappointment. At least that was over now, but a far more difficult task lay ahead.

How was he ever going to convince his parents that they should give up their ideas of the perfect bride for his happiness.

This could possibly their most difficult operation ever.

/

"Well it's settled," Raj told Naina when he called her up later that day, "Come with your parents to Ambala this weekend and they can meet my parents on Sunday."

"Oh wow, really?" Naina asked him, "That's so soon, I mean… what am I going to wear?"

"I doubt it will make a difference." Raj told her glumly and Naina immediately realised that something was wrong.

"What's wrong?" she asked him, "There's something you're not telling me, isn't there?"

"Naina, if you don't actually want to get married then it's going to be very easy to avoid it." Raj told her, "Because I don't know whether my parents are going to agree for our wedding or not."

Naina felt her heart sink, she knew that he wasn't joking. "Well why not?" she asked, "What's wrong with me that they wouldn't want us to get married?"

"Naina there is absolutely nothing wrong with you," Raj reassured you, "Anybody would be lucky to have you as a daughter in law, I mean you're beautiful, and you're smart, and you're kind, and funny and…" He realised that he'd probably said enough, and decided that he should stop the list there. "It's my parents that there's something wrong with, I know them, and I know they're not going to give in easily."

"Well what's the problem?" Naina asked, "I know that for awhile they wanted you to marry Neelu, but I thought you'd sorted that out."

"It's not that they wanted me to marry Neelu, it's that they wanted me to marry some business man's daughter so that the can profit from it."

"Oh," Naina said, suddenly understanding. "This really isn't going to work, is it?"

"Well, we'll try our best." Raj told her, "But it would be good if you could warn your parents, I'm just really worried that mine might be a bit rude."

"I'll do that," Naina promised him, "But do we have a plan? Is there any way that we can make them agree?"

"I think that for now we just have to hope for the best," Raj told her, and despite the seriousness of the situation, he couldn't help feeling relieved that it at least sounded as if Naina wished to get married.

"Naina… do you think you could come a little earlier before your parents arrive? So that we can have time to talk?" There he'd asked, it was done. No matter what happened, he would make sure that Naina knew how he really felt about her. Whether his parents agreed or not, he wasn't about to let her go easily. They would find a way, he knew they would.

"I'll try," Naina told him, and her voice was full of promise. "I'll talk to Ma and Baba about it tonight, and I'll make sure that I at least come on Saturday."

"We'll talk properly then." Raj promised, "I mean, there are things which on the phone…"

"I understand," Naina told him, "And I'll be waiting to see you until then. I'll call to let you know when I'm arriving."

They said goodbye, and Raj leaned against the wall, trying to get a hold of his feelings.

She would come, he would tell her the truth, and then… then it was out of their hands for the time being. Nobody had been able to give him a single good idea and Raj also had no clue as to how they were supposed to convince his parents.

Eloping was starting to look like a much better option.

/

It was lunch time on Saturday and Raj was waiting nervously at the bus station for Naina to arrive. Her parents would be driving in a few hours later, but luckily she had managed to convince them that she should arrive early so that she and Raj could talk.

Raj checked the watch that she had given him for the hundredth time, before cursing the bus for being late. Every minute that it didn't arrive was another minute less that he and Naina would have together.

He noticed the bus approaching from a distance and sighed with relief.

/

Meanwhile on the bus, Naina had been asking when it was due to arrive every few minutes for the past two hours. Now recognising Ambala, she stood up excitedly in her seat, wanting to get to the front as quickly as possible.

"Sit down, young lady." The conductor told her, "You can get up once the bus actually stops."

"But I…"

"Sit down!"

Reluctantly Naina sat back down, thinking that the other passengers had better let her past when the bus finally stopped.

She needn't have worried, everybody was very quick to get out of her way when the bus finally stopped, probably because they realised that at the speed Naina was going, it would be dangerous to try to exit ahead of her.

Finally Naina made it to the door and spotting Raj, began to wave madly. He waved back just as enthusiastically, and she jumped down from the step, rushing over to him.

"Hi," Naina told him breathlessly, trying to calm herself down.

"Hi," Raj told her in reply with a grin, "I can't believe that you're finally here."

It was too much for Naina to resist, all the way here she'd practiced what she might say, how she might tell him, but now that she was finally here she was forgetting everything.

"I love you, Raj!" she declared suddenly before she could lose the courage to do so, "I really do, and I really, really want to get married to you."

Raj stared at her slightly dazed. He hadn't expected it to happen this quickly. In fact he'd been planning to take her somewhere nice and then tell her his feelings very romantically. He should've realised that nothing ever went exactly to plan in their relationship.

Raj decided to hell with the plan, he was going to tell her right now in the middle of the bus depot.

"I love you too, Naina, so much!" He told her, "You don't know how happy you've just made me."

They grinned at each other like fools for a moment, then Naina impulsively placed her arms around his neck, and Raj hugged her to him, lifting her off the ground and kissing her cheek.

They were still hugging each other when an older passenger from the bus stepped around them, muttering something about shameless young people.

Slightly embarrassed, they broke apart, but Raj grabbed her hand instead, at least wanting to keep touching her in some way. Naina smiled and entwined her fingers with his.

"Do you have any luggage?" he finally asked, and Naina shook her head.

"No, only this backpack." She told him, "The rest is coming with Ma and Baba."

"You know, this really wasn't the way that I planned on telling you." Raj admitted, "I thought I'd take you somewhere nice for lunch and then confess."

"Well when has our romance ever been typical or normal?" Naina asked him, "I know I should've waited for the right moment, but I just really wanted to tell you right then."

"I'm glad you did," Raj tells her warmly, "At least now all the nervousness is finished and we can go and enjoy our time together."

"Well what should we do now?" Naina asked him, "We have an entire afternoon together before my parents arrive."

"Well how about some lunch? Since I was planning on taking you anyway."

"Sounds excellent," Naina told him brightly, "I really am quite hungry after the long bus trip."

"Then let's go and get you some food," Raj told her, "And we can try to at least have one romantic afternoon without any planning or scheming."

"What a relief," Naina replied, "I was thinking that we would never have a normal type of relationship. I'm so glad that we don't have to worry about 'Operation Confusion' anymore."

They reached the motorbike, and Raj climbed on, starting it up before Naina took the seat behind him, winding her arms securely around his waist.

"I could get used to this very easily," she told Raj, resisting the urge to lean her head on his shoulder. After all they were out in public in the middle of the day.

"I know exactly what you mean." Raj told her, turning around to give her a happy smile.

Her parents would be arriving tonight and her would be in-laws arriving the next morning.

At least for this afternoon they could pretend that everything was going to plan.


	20. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19:**

"I can't believe that you actually love me," Raj remarked with a silly grin on his face when they sat down to lunch. He had taken her to a nice café overlooking a lake, the spot where he had originally intended to confess his feelings.

"Well why not?" Naina asked with a smile, taking his hand in hers. "You are quite loveable after all. What I can't believe is that I didn't love you sooner. I'm pretty stupid when it comes to this type of thing."

Raj laughed, "Well if you'd had more practice with falling in love and having to recognise it, then I would need to feel jealous, so I'm glad you don't."

Naina made a face at him, "I'm not really sure that I can imagine you as the jealous type." She told Raj, "But I'm warning you that I can get very jealous, so you'd better not even talk to other girls from now on." She grinned at him just to let him know she was joking.

Not content to be holding only one hand, Raj picked up her other one too. They were just gazing at each other when the waiter arrived with their food, clearing his throat.

Embarrassed, Raj dropped her hands.

"Raj, we're not doing anything wrong." Naina told him, "Holding hands in public isn't a crime."

"I know that it's not," Raj told her, "I'm just not really used to all this. First I had to hold your hands while pretending to be in love, then I had to pretend that I didn't want to hold your hands, and now that I can actually do it properly, I've got no idea how I should be doing it."

Naina giggled at this, "We really are a strange couple, aren't we?" she asked him. "We haven't had a normal romance at all, half of the time we were pretending to be in love with each other and half of the time we were pretending not to be."

She picked at her sandwich, more interested in gazing at Raj than in actually eating.

"So after all of that pretending, when did you decide that you actually loved me?" he asked, curious to know how recently it had been.

"After I told my mother that I did," Naina admitted, "I kept thinking about it, about why I'd used that reason to escape from the marriage with Huda. And the more I thought about it, the more I realised that it was true, and how stupid I'd been not to realise it before then."

Raj laughed, "It's not your fault," he told her, "It took me awhile to realise it too, before then I was in serious denial about it. I knew when you left after Republic Day."

"And then you had to deal with Navin Bhaiyya," Naina giggled, "I'm so sorry about that, I never thought he'd act that way when this was all his plan."

"Well Navin has been having some serious mood swings lately," Raj told her, "He's been so happy just knowing that we want to get married that I have no idea how he'll react when we actually get married." He suddenly became serious, "Or how he'll react if we can't…"

Naina's face fell, she had been avoiding thinking about it. "Do you really think that your parents are going to say no?" She asked Raj, "And if they do, then what do we do next?"

"We make a new plan." Raj said determinedly, "And then we just keep on trying. Don't worry Naina, after all this effort to realise that we love each other, I'm not going to give up on this marriage easily."

"Oh Raj," Naina said, and honestly she would've gotten up from the table and kissed him right then if they hadn't been in the middle of a café. Instead she had to settle for gazing at him dreamily across the table and reaching out for his hand again.

"Well let's finish our food and then I'll show you around Ambala properly," Raj told her, "We've still got two hours before your parents arrive, right?"

Raj wished that they had been due to arrive much later, but he supposed that as modern as they were, they weren't going to encourage her to stay alone with the boy she wanted to marry for too long.

They finally finished their lunch and climbed onto the motorbike again, this time Naina didn't resist, after winding her arms around his waist she leaned her head on his shoulder.

Raj thought that he could definitely get used to this, that if this was what life with Naina was like then he couldn't wait to get married and spend the rest of his life with her.

He drove her around town stopping at various points before taking her to one of the best viewpoints overlooking Ambala and as they both perched on the bike, Raj pointed out various landmarks including KMA.

"Do I really have to go back again tomorrow afternoon?" Naina asked rhetorically, not really needing an answer to her question. "In the time that we've known each other, we've spent so little time together, I think that most of our romance has actually been done on the phone."

Raj laughed "I think you're right, but once we manage to get married we'll be able to spend all our time together. We'll find you an MBA program near where I'm posted, and you'll have more than enough to do while I'm on duty."

"So I won't have to live with your family, then?" Naina asked, "I was worried that I might have to stay with them while you were posted elsewhere."

"Naina, I would never inflict that type of punishment on you," Raj told her seriously, "When I have a hard enough time living with my family, I don't know how I could ever ask you to do it."

"Good," Naina said with a smile, "Then at least I know we'll be together. Wouldn't it be perfect if you and Navin were posted in the same place? Then we could all be together."

Raj agreed, at least after their marriage Navin was likely to calm down and have a few less mood swings.

Naina leaned her head on his shoulder and placed her arms around his waist and Raj couldn't control the surge of love he felt in his heart. Leaning down he tilted up her head and then kissed her softly on the lips before pulling back again.

Naina looked stunned, "What was that?" she asked.

"I think that most people call it a kiss." Raj told her, hoping that he hadn't just made a mistake and gone too fast.

"Well can we do it again?" Naina asked, "I don't think the last one was long enough for me to get a proper understanding of the experience."

Grinning, Raj leaned down and kissed her again, cupping her face in his hands. It took them much longer to separate this time, and when they did, Naina had exactly the same grin on her face as he did.

"Well thank god we did that before our parents sat down to talk about our marriage," she said, "Or this really would've been a very strange relationship."

"You know why I love you so much?" Raj asked her, "Because you can make fun of even the most serious situations."

"It is definitely a talent." Naina agreed, "It's not easy you know, I have to constantly work on it."

Raj looked at his watch, "Well I think I'd better get you to the hotel. Your parents will definitely have arrived by now, and if we get back too late, I might lose their approval and they'll go back to that Bhais-walla."

Naina laughed, "Not a chance, Navin has been calling them every day to tell them what a great guy you are, they're now convinced that they're getting the most perfect son-in-law in the world."

"Still, I'd better get you back." Raj told her reluctantly, "We'll see each other tomorrow morning, and then our future is going to be decided."

"Are you nervous?" Naina asked him.

"Very," Raj admitted, "Because I think I already know what the answer is going to be."

"But we won't give up," Naina said determinedly, "Your parents are going to have to realise that they don't have a choice. If they try to get another bride for you then that poor girl will never know what hit her. Nobody messes with Naina Singh Ahluwalia's intended husband."

Raj decided that he definitely liked the way he had progressed from 'pretend boyfriend' to boyfriend, to intended husband. It had a nice ring to it.

"Oh, I suppose I'd better give this back to you." Naina said, slipping his ring off her finger reluctantly, "If your parents notice me wearing it then they might be annoyed."

Raj realised that she had a point and slipped it back onto one of his fingers. "I'll give it back to you as soon as they're gone," he promised, "No matter what happens."

He dropped Naina back to the hotel and after checking which room her parents were in, walked her upstairs. They knocked and waited until the door was opened by Naina's smiling mother.

"Raj Beta, it's so lovely to see you again, especially under such happy circumstances." She told him, and Raj bent down to touch her feet as she blessed him. She let him inside and Raj went to greet Naina's father, touching his feet as well before Mr Ahluwalia hugged him.

"We really are very happy," Mr Ahluwalia told him, "We couldn't have hoped for a better future son-in-law."

"Thank you very much, Sir." Raj replied, "I'm sorry we didn't tell you earlier, but we thought that it would be better to wait."

"That's quite alright," Mrs Ahluwalia reassured him, "We know now, and we can get everything worked out with your parents."

Raj looked quite uncomfortable about this. The thing that he was dreading the most was the meeting tomorrow. He was terrified that his parents would end up saying or doing something rude that would offend Naina's parents, then they would never accept him.

"I'd better get back to the academy now," he told them, "I'll see you again in the morning."

"Bye," Naina told him softly, looking as if she wished he never had to leave.

"Bye," Raj replied, not wanting to say more than that in front of her parents, and casting one last longing glance at her, he left the room, closing the door behind him.

/

After leaving the hotel, Raj returned back to the academy and entered the mess where he sat down at a table with Navin, Tanu, Abhimanyu, Nandini and Aalekh. Yudi was nowhere in sight, Raj just hoped that his date with Shalini was going well so that he never had to rely on Navin or Tanu for any advice again.

"So how's Naina?" Navin asked, "Did you have a nice date with my sister?"

"Yes," Raj replied, and couldn't help grinning.

"For your sake, that had better mean that you didn't do anything more than hold her hand." Navin mock threatened him, "Don't even think about doing more than that until after you're married."

"You're such a hypocrite," Abhimanyu told Naveen, "From now on if I see you and Tanu doing anything more than holding hands then I'll be telling you to stop."

"Well that's different," Navin defended himself, "And if you had a sister then you would know why."

"Anyway," Raj interrupted the conversation, deciding it would be best to change the subject. "We still haven't come up with a plan for tomorrow, can you think of something Navin?"

"Why are you relying on me to think of something?" Navin asked.

"Well it's not as if you've got no experience with planning or scheming," Raj said, rolling his eyes.

"Why would you think that I had more experience than any of these other guys?" Navin asked, starting to get nervous.

Raj decided that now was definitely not the right time to let Navin and Tanu know that they'd known about 'Operation Marriage' all along.

"Well actually I've already banned both Aalekh and Yudi from making suggestions," he informed Navin, "So I thought that I'd try you next."

"Well I don't see how they couldn't love Naina," Navin said, switching to proud brother mode, "They'll give in as soon as they see her."

Raj just hoped that Navin's optimism turned out to be right, but somehow he thought that things weren't going to be that easy.

"Well if everything else fails, I suppose there's always Aalekh's and Yudi's plans." Raj said glumly, knowing exactly how they were likely to turn out.

"And what were they?" Navin asked, "Exactly why did you ban them from making any more suggestions?"

"Trust me," Raj told Navin sincerely, "You really don't want to know."

He just hoped that it wouldn't come to that.

Because he wasn't sure which of them was worse, should he first tell them that Naina was pregnant, or try taking poison before that?

Or take poison, leave a note saying that Naina was pregnant, and run away?

He really had to come up with a new plan.


	21. Chapter 20

**Chapter Twenty**

The next morning Raj went for a very long run around the grounds, trying to make himself less nervous for what lay ahead. This so wasn't going to work, he knew it wasn't. Still he supposed that they had better try a normal way of getting his parents to accept their marriage before they began to scheme properly.

When Raj arrived back, Navin was already dressed and ready to leave, as he and Tanu would be having breakfast with his family and then staying with them throughout the morning. Raj would also be going to see his parents early, he supposed it was his last chance to really be able to convince them.

"Well I'll see you in a couple of hours," Navin told him cheerfully and Raj just nodded silently, unable to echo his friend's optimism.

He made sure that he dressed nicely, even though he knew that there was no need to impress Naina's parents. Obviously Naina would be making an effort with her appearance, so he thought he might as well too.

Deciding that he needed something to calm himself down, Raj headed to the mess to have some chai before going to his parents' hotel. As soon as he arrived there he saw that most of his friends were already gathered, and sitting at the same table. He was sure he knew exactly what they had been discussing.

"Hey Suriji, one cup of very special chai for our future dulha!" Abhimanyu called out, before clapping Raj on the back as he came and sat down beside him. "So how are you feeling?" Abhi asked him, "Nervous?"

"I think I'm going to throw up." Raj told him, only half joking.

"Maybe I shouldn't have ordered you that chai…." Abhimanyu started to say.

"Don't worry Raj, it will be perfectly fine." Nandini reassured him, "Naina is such a sweet girl, I don't know who wouldn't want her for a daughter-in-law."

"And remember," Yudi told Raj from where he sat across the table with Shalini, "There's always poison. When they refuse, just take out a bottle and threaten to drink it. Or maybe a gun would be better…" he started to say, "You know if we could get you a gun from the armoury…"

"Yudi!" Shalini exclaimed loudly, "We are not getting Raj a gun from the armoury!"

"And now I remember why I banned you from making suggestions," Raj told Yudi, glaring slightly.

"Don't worry Rajbhai," Ali told him, "I'm sure that everything will work out in the end. Allah is not so cruel as to separate you from Naina, just don't lose hope."

"It's not Allah that I'm worried about, Ali." Raj told him, "It's my parents, they definitely are cruel enough."

He finished drinking his chai and got up to leave. "Well I'm going to go meet my parents, any last suggestions?" he asked.

Aalekh mouthed the word 'pregnant', earning himself a glare from Raj.

"Just go and show them what you're made of!" Pooja told him, "Chak de Raj!"

"Yes," Raj said, feeling a little better. "Chak de!"

"Right guys, now let's give him a proper send off!" Pooja told them, still trying to raise his spirits, "Jo Bole, So Nihal!"

"Sat Sri Akal!" Even Suriji joined in, and Raj had to admit that it had made him feel quite a bit better. If there was one thing he needed right now, then it was definitely a war cry.

He rode his motorbike all the way to his parents' hotel, of course one of the fancier ones in Ambala. They had ended up arriving there late last night, so Raj had decided that it would be best if he waited until the morning to see them.

As soon as he knocked on the door his mother opened it, and he touched her feet quickly before hugging her. It wasn't that he didn't love his parents, really he did. It was just that they had rather different opinions about most things.

"Raj, what are they doing to you in the army?" she asked him, "You've become so skinny, and your hair… why have they cut it so short?"

"Ma, it's the army." Raj told her, "We're not there to be fashionable or become fat."

His mother gave him a disappointed look, obviously thinking about the stylish hairstyle that he used to have.

"Hi Dad," Raj walked into the room further and greeted his father, touching his feet and then giving him a hug.

"Hi Raj," his father said, looking him over. "I agree with your mother, your hair is terrible. But at least the army seems to have toughened you up."

"Of course," Raj said, "They make sure that we're fully prepared for our future careers."

"Hmmph, career…" his father remarked, obviously thinking that the army didn't qualify for the title of career.

"Well Dad, Ma, I think we'll need to leave within half an hour to be there on time." He told them anxiously.

"Yes, and then we'll see this girl." His mother said, almost disinterestedly.

"Naina, Ma, her name is Naina." Raj said, becoming more and more desperate. "And I know that she's not what you imagined your daughter-in-law would be, but I really, really love her so please try and have an open mind about this."

"Of course we'll have an open mind, Raj." His father told him, "But we do have to think about your future, which is why we'll be weighing up the pros and cons of the situation."

"Exactly Dad, please think about my future." Raj replied, "Get me married to somebody who I love and who will make me happy."

"Of course Beta, we're only thinking about your happiness." His mother said quickly, obviously wanting to distract him.

"Just please promise me that you won't be rude with them," Raj said a bit desperately, "Please, please promise me that."

"Of course we won't be rude, Raj!" His mother exclaimed, "What do you think of us?"

Raj knew perfectly well what he thought, but he wasn't about to say it.

/

Meanwhile Naina had been in a state of panic ever since she woke up, preparing to fight a battle that both of them were sure they were going to lose.

She had brought five choices of outfits with her, and as soon as Tanu had arrived, and greeted Naina's parents, she had dragged her inside the bedroom to make her help choose what to wear.

They finally settled on a light pink salwar kameez, and Tanu began to do Naina's hair and makeup, deciding that she should keep her hair loose and have only minimal makeup. Naina was fine with that.

She was just putting some earrings on when the doorbell rung, and Naina's heart started beating even faster.

"Relax," Tanu told her, "Whatever happens, Raj will manage it, you know that."

Naina nodded, took a deep breath, and prepared for what was going to come next.

Meanwhile Raj and his parents had already entered the room, and after the two sets of parents had greeted each other politely, he touched Naina's parents feet before Navin gave him a warm hug.

"Please come and sit down," Mrs Ahluwalia told them, indicating the lounge suite and everybody made their way to the couches.

"Navin, could you please tell Tanu to bring Naina out now?" she then asked, and Navin went to the bedroom door, knocked before peering around it, and then whispered to them that it was time to come out.

The moment that Naina came out of the room, Raj just sat there dumbstruck.

Man, he really loved her.

Really, really loved her.

Really, really, really loved her.

He was aware that he was staring, but he didn't really care, because if there was anything that he could happily stare at for the rest of his life, then it was Naina.

Raj looked across to check his parents' reactions, happy that they both looked suitably impressed. However he knew it wasn't going to be as easy as them just realising that Naina was very pretty. She kept her eyes downcast and Raj knew that it wasn't an act, she was definitely genuinely nervous.

Naina quickly touched both of their feet before settling on the sofa beside her parents. She glanced at Raj quickly, obviously wanting reassurance and he smiled at her, wanting to make her feel better.

"Well Mr and Mrs Shekawat, we're very happy to finally meet you." Naina's father told them, "Raj is such a wonderful young man, and in a very short time he's become almost like a part of our family."

"Yes, Raj has told us about your family quite often." Mr Shekawat replied, "I believe your son Navin is his best friend."

Raj sighed with relief, well it had started better than he had thought it would.

"Well we might as well discuss the reason we're here," Mr Ahluwalia continued, "Which is that both of our children have decided that they like each other and would now like to get married."

"You know we only found out a week ago," Mrs Shekawat replied, "Raj had never mentioned anything about it before then."

"Even we didn't know before then," Mrs Ahluwalia said, "We were thinking of accepting another proposal for Naina when she told us that she liked Raj."

"And how old is your daughter?" Mrs Shekawat asked.

"She'll be turning twenty one in a week." Mr Ahluwalia replied, "She's in the final year of her business degree and would like to study for her MBA next."

"Don't you think that she's a little young to be getting married?" Mr Shekawat asked, "These days children get married rather late, it takes them awhile to work out what they really want in life."

Real nice, Dad, Raj thought, try to find an excuse for us to not get married that doesn't involve you being a snob.

"Well I admit that twenty one is quite young for Naina to be marrying by today's standards, but when she's chosen somebody for herself then how can we object?" her father asked, smiling at Raj. "The main issue in marriages these days is that the children are happy."

"Of course," Mr Shekawat replied a little uncomfortably, "It's just that we weren't planning on getting Raj married just yet. Of course he has to settle into his career first, and at this age how do children really know what they want out of life? What if they change their minds later?"

Mr and Mrs Ahluwlia also began to look uncomfortable, realising that Mr and Mrs Shekawat were not as happy with this alliance as they had hoped they would be. Naina was currently giving Raj a look of despair, and he couldn't do anything to help, they would just have to watch it through to its awful conclusion.

"And when the most important issue is whether the children are happy or not, then we have to think very carefully about their marriages." Mrs Shekawat broke in, "Naina has been brought up in a very different environment to Raj, I don't know if she would be able to adjust to our lifestyle or not."

Naina was suddenly very glad that Raj had promised she would not live with his parents after marriage, because she was having some terrible visions of what her life would be like if she did.

She would become an Ekta Kapoor heroine, one of those poor girls fighting for their rights against the rich mother in law. Naina didn't even like Saas Bahu serials, there was no way that she wanted her life to become one.

Mr Ahluwalia now had a look on his face that said he was not sure there was much point in taking this discussion further. Now the most important thing was to make sure that they finished it off without causing too much embarrassment to anybody on either side.

"Well I can confidently say that our Naina will be able to fit into any environment." He told them, "We're ready for this alliance, but I understand if you need some time to think. You can inform us of your decision."

"Of course," Mr Shekawat replied smoothly, "It was wonderful to meet you and your lovely daughter." And very quickly both of Raj's parents got up to leave. "Well Raj, shall we go?" his father asked him.

"You go back to the hotel, Dad." Raj replied, "I'll be there soon."

And his parents left as if they couldn't get out of the place soon enough.

Raj turned back to Naina and her family, taking in the hurt in her eyes, a look that he knew was mirrored in his. The looks on Navin and Tanu's faces were also ones of shock and disappointment.

"Aunty and Uncle, I'm so sorry about this." Raj told them, "I know that Naina warned you, but I was honestly hoping that they might…"

"It's not your fault, Raj Beta." Naina's father told him kindly and a little sadly, "We had hoped that things would work out for the best but… well, it's god that decides on the pairs not us."

"Please don't give up just yet," Raj begged them, "I'll try my best to convince my parents, but I do really want to marry Naina."

Her parents just nodded, Navin and Tanu still weren't able to speak, obviously shocked at all their planning having failed.

"Would you mind if Naina came down to say goodbye to me?" Raj asked them, knowing that he needed to talk to her in private after what happened.

"Of course she can, go and walk Raj downstairs, Naina."

Nodding quietly, Naina followed him out the door and over to the elevators.

"We failed." She told Raj flatly, "They weren't even interested in asking me what my hobbies were or whether I could cook well. I had such good answers prepared too."

"Don't give up," Raj told her, holding her by the shoulders so that she had to look at him, "We will get married, I promise you that. I'll go and talk to them now and try to convince them to agree."

"Good luck," Naina wished him, and suddenly she threw her arms around his neck and hugged him. Raj hugged her back just as fiercely until the elevator reached the ground floor and the doors opened, realising that they had better stop.

As she walked him to where he could catch a taxi, Raj took the same ring off his finger and taking Naina's hand in his, this time he slipped it directly onto her finger.

"We will get married," he promised her, "Just don't give up just yet."

Naina nodded and he hugged her again, holding her head to his chest. He wished he could kiss her but it was probably best not to do so in front of a hotel with so many guests around.

"I love you," he told Naina, and kissing her forehead, climbed into a taxi.

"I love you too." She replied, leaning into the window next to where he sat, not caring that the taxi driver was listening.

They waved at each other as the taxi left, and Raj realised what a huge task he had ahead of him.

/

As soon as he reached his parents' hotel, he went straight to their room, intending to confront them.

"So what's your decision?" he asked them, not seeing any point in wasting time.

"Raj, she really is a nice girl but I just don't think she's suitable for you." His mother told him, "We can find you a much better bride."

"I don't want a better bride, Ma." Raj replied, "I want Naina, and I will only marry Naina."

"You're just infatuated," his father said dismissively, "You'll soon realise that we're right."

"No I won't," Raj told them stubbornly, "Because you're not, you'll ruin my life if you refuse this marriage. I swear if you don't get me married to her then your son will no longer be alive."

"Don't be so melodramatic, Raj." His father scoffed, "We both know that you're not going to kill yourself, so don't even try threatening it."

Alright, so Yudi's first idea didn't work…

"I don't care whether you want me to marry her or not, I'll marry her without your permission."

"Then you'll have to find some way to pay your own academy fees." His father told him in a very no nonsense way.

Point. Raj had no money to do so, and he didn't think that Naina's parents would be as happy to accept him if he didn't have a bright career in front of him.

That was it, he had one option left… and it wasn't a good one, but he really was desperate…

"We're got to get married!" he told them with a hint of desperation, "She's pregnant and going to give birth to your first grandchild, you'll face a lot of shame if we don't get married!"

His father gave him a look that clearly said he didn't believe it.

"Raj, we might not want you to marry the girl, but it's clear by looking at her that she's not the type to get pregnant before marriage." Mr Shekawat told him in a very no nonsense tone. "If you want us to believe that, then go and bring us some proof."

That was it, all of his options were gone. Yudi and Aalekh's advice had been completely useless.

He was not getting married.

Not yet anyway…


	22. Chapter 21

**Chapter Twenty One**

Raj was in quite a bad mood by the time he returned to the academy. He had known all along that this wasn't going to work out, he had told Navin that it wouldn't. And now his parents had refused his marriage with Naina and he was feeling terrible.

As soon as he walked into the canteen, Navin and Tanu immediately approached him.

"Raj, what happened?" Navin asked, "Did you manage to convince him?"

Raj just gave Navin a sour look, ignored him and walked to the table where the rest of their friends were and sat down, before resting his head on the table with a slight bang.

"Raj, come on, what happened?" Navin said, coming to sit opposite him even as everybody else crowded around, nervously waiting for the response.

"What do you think happened?" Raj asked, still not raising his head, "And for the record, I'm not talking to you."

"Why not?" Navin asked, "What have I done?"

"Well," Raj finally raised his head and glared at his friend, "I want somebody to blame and I've decided that it's going to be you. This is all your fault."

"How is it Navin's fault?" Tanu asked, "What did he do wrong?"

"Oh, I forgot." Raj said sarcastically, "This is your fault too."

"My fault? But I…"

"Oh yes, great plan." Raj interrupted, "Well when you were scheming to get me and Naina to fall in love, you conveniently forgot to work out exactly how to get us married."

"Plan? Scheming?" Navin asked nervously, "Raj what are you…"

"Oh stop pretending," Raj told him, "Naina and I have both known about 'Operation Marriage' ever since Diwali time."

Navin and Tanu's mouths both dropped open, as did everybody else's at the table. Well almost everybody, Aalekh as usual looked calm, while Yudi looked a bit guilty.

"Navin, what is this yaar?" Abhimanyu asked, "What's Operation Marriage?"

"Well," Raj started off in an explanatory tone, "Navin and Tanu wanted to get married, but they couldn't until Naina got married first, so they hatched a plan to introduce us, make us fall in love and then get us married off."

Abhimanyu shook his head at the couple sitting together. "I can't believe this," he said, "Are you serious, Raj?"

"We didn't do it just so that we could get married," Tanu told them defensively, "We honestly did feel that Raj was the best choice for Naina."

"But does this mean that you've really been pretending this whole time?" Navin asked Raj, "You were never really in love?"

Raj rolled his eyes at Navin, "Would I be this upset about not being able to get married if I didn't really love Naina? Instead I would've been happy that our plan finally worked."

"Your plan?"

"Yes, 'Operation Confusion', for a very long time it really was a pretence so that Naina could avoid her marriage being fixed up with anybody else."

"And then?" Tanu asked expectantly.

"And then our plan backfired at we really fell in love!" Raj exclaimed as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "And it's definitely all your fault, if it wasn't for you then none of this would've even started."

"Raj, I'm so sorry…" Navin started to say, "I never thought that…"

"Well there's only one thing that I know," Raj told him, "If you don't figure out a way for Naina and I to get married, then I swear I won't let you and Tanu get married either. And that is Rajveer Singh Shekawat's solemn promise."

And he stormed out of the cafeteria and headed to his room.

/

Navin didn't dare disturb him that night, and Raj was still in too bad a mood to talk to him the next morning. Instead, after dressing he headed straight to the mess, honestly just wanting to be alone.

He had just asked Suriji for some chai when an orderly came and informed him that he had a phone call, Raj headed to the phone reluctantly, guessing that it would be either Naina or his parents. If it was his parents then he had no desire to talk to them at all, if it was Naina then he was dreading telling her that he hadn't been able to convince his parents.

"Hello?"

"Raj, It's me."

"Naina, I couldn't… I mean they didn't… they've refused."

"I was guessing that they would," Naina replied, and Raj was surprised that she didn't sound more upset. "You know Raj I've been thinking, in fact I was thinking the entire car ride back to Nainital, and then last night too and I've made a decision." This was it, she was going to tell him that she couldn't stand his parents and no matter how much she loved him, it was far too much trouble to marry him.

"I want to get married."

Well that was a relief, but…

"Naina, I want to get married too, and we definitely will, it's just that it will take a bit longer than we thought."

Silence, and then…

"No Raj, I mean I want to get married now."

Raj stopped, stunned and unable to think. "You mean right now?" he asked, "On the telephone?"

"Well alright, not right now." Naina told him, "But definitely as soon as possible."

"Naina, you know how much I love you and how badly I want to marry you, but if we do it then my parents will stop paying my academy fees. I think it's best that we wait until I finish my training, then I'll have an income and can provide for you."

"And what if your parents didn't know?" Naina asked him, and Raj could tell by her voice that she was perfectly serious.

"And what about your parents? Would they really agree to it?" Raj asked, beginning to get intrigued by what it was that Naina was thinking about.

"What if they didn't know either?"

"Naina… are you suggesting that we get married secretly? Navin has already forbidden me to elope with you."

"Well…. What if he didn't know either?" Naina replied, and for a moment Raj was too surprised to even speak.

"Naina, what exactly do you want to do?" Raj asked, wanting her to elaborate.

"Raj, I'm willing to wait to get married to you, but I'm also afraid that our parents might arrange our marriages elsewhere." Naina explained, "And, well, I just thought we could do with some insurance."

"Insurance?" He wasn't sure that he was following her exactly.

"Alright, this is what I was thinking. We get married in a registry office, that way it's legal and nobody can separate us. Then later when your parents give in we'll get married properly with all the rituals. What do you think?"

Raj had to admit that the idea sounded quite good to him. Naina as his wife… he wouldn't need to worry about her parents getting her married to that Bhais-wallah or anybody else.

"What about next weekend?" he asked her, "Can you come next weekend?"

"No, I looked up the laws on the internet." Naina told him, and he realised that while he was despairing, she was researching ways to fix the problem. "We have to give notice of our marriage thirty days beforehand so that they can receive any objections. So go to the office there as soon as possible and give our notice and we'll get married in thirty days time."

Thirty days…. Well, it was a long time away but it was also sooner than he had expected they could get married.

"And what if somebody raises an objection?" Raj asked.

"Well they can only raise one if they know about it," Naina's tone was mischievous, "And they won't."

This plan was beginning to sound better and better by the minute…

"Is there anything else we need to do besides give this notice?" Raj asked her.

"Well we need three witnesses, so choose trustworthy people, Aalekh would probably do it for us, so we need two more."

"And then we'll be married?"

"And then we'll be married!"

"I really love you." Raj exclaimed, his attitude completely changed now, "And in a month you're going to be my wife."

"Secret wife." Naina corrected him, "That sounds so cool, doesn't it?"

"Very cool." Raj agreed, "I'll go and put the notice in today, the sooner we get married the better."

They said goodbye and he headed back to the cafeteria, trying not to smile. It was better if nobody became suspicious about why he was suddenly so happy again.

Raj collected his tea off Suriji and served himself breakfast. He was just sitting down when Navin and Tanu walked in together and headed in his direction.

"Raj, we are so, so sorry." Navin told him, looking very guilty "We might have done this for our own benefit, but honestly we want you and Naina to be able to get married, I always knew you'd be the best husband for my sister."

"We really didn't think it would end up like this," Tanu continued pleadingly, "Please forgive us, and we'll try our best to fix this."

"It's okay guys," Raj told them calmly, "I'm sorry about yesterday, I was just really upset. I've just talked to Naina and we've decided that we'll wait until I finish my training and then try again."

He was surprised by how easy it was to lie, but then again he'd had quite a bit of practice over the last few months.

"Well thank god," Navin sighed, "I don't know what I'd do if you stayed angry with me, I don't want to lose my best friend."

Raj gave both Navin and Tanu warm hugs, not angry with them at all anymore.

Now if everything went according to plan then within one month, he would not only be Navin's best friend, he would also be his brother-in-law.

/

Raj was able to sneak off to the registry office during their free time in the afternoon, asking Aalekh to cover him without telling him the reason.

Once it was done, Raj returned to the academy with a huge grin on his face.

"Oy, chakkar kya hai?" Aalekh asked him.

"I'll tell you soon." Raj promised, not wanting anybody to actually find out until the end of the month in case something went wrong.

He called Naina on her birthday, making sure to do so at a time when her parents weren't home.

"Is everything going according to plan?" he asked quietly.

"Yes," Naina reassured him, "I've told Ma and Baba that one of my friends has invited me to go away with her that weekend, and Neelu has promised to pick me up and take me to the registry office. We'll have a three hour gap in which to get married and then I'll get back on the bus again."

"Then in less than a month, we'll officially be married." Raj said happily, "And then nothing can come between us."

"So have you chosen witnesses yet?" Naina asked, wanting everything to be sorted out before time.

Raj had been going through a long process of elimination. Yudi had been crossed off the list of potential witnesses for the marriage. Raj still hadn't forgotten about him telling Navin when Raj climbed out of Naina's window. Then he had decided that it couldn't be Shalini as she would probably tell Yudi.

Navin and Tanu also obviously couldn't be asked, since they were the ones the marriage was being hidden from.

Pooja was too likely to accidentally say something to be trusted, and Ali was so principled he would probably oppose a secret marriage.

And so that had left Raj with exactly three choices, Aaalekh, Abhimanyu and Nandini.

He told Naina exactly that.

"Sounds good to me," Naina replied, "Neelu will be there as well so we'll have a spare."

"I can't wait to see you," Raj whispered into the phone, "I've got a present to give you for your birthday."

"Then I can't wait to get it," Naina told him, a smile in her voice, "But nothing will be better than finally getting married."

Raj couldn't help but agree.

/

The rest of the required time passed torturously slowly, and every day Raj feared that somebody would find out and raise an objection, but nobody did.

Finally the day before the marriage was due to happen, Raj asked Abhimanyu, Nandini and Aalekh to all join him in the games room at dinner time when everybody would be busy.

"I need to ask a favour from you all," he told them, "Tomorrow you have to come with me somewhere, it's important."

"Where do you need us to go?" Abhimanyu asked curiously, wanting to know the reason for Raj's secrecy.

"You'll find out tomorrow," Raj replied, "Just don't let anybody know that we're all going together. You and Nandini should pretend that you're going on a date, and I'll tell them that I'm taking Aalekh out shopping for some clothes."

"Raj this is all very mysterious," Nandini commented, "Exactly what are you up to and why can't anybody know about it?"

Aaalekh was looking at him in a very appraising way, and Raj was wondering whether he had already guessed what was going on.

"Wait and see," Raj told her, "Everything will be revealed tomorrow."

/

The day dawned bright, and just as they had promised, everybody made their excuses and left separately, Aalekh and Raj on one bike and Abhimanyu and Nandini on another.

When they met further up the road, Raj gestured to them to follow him, and they reached the registry office quickly.

He was just looking around when a taxi pulled up and Naina and Neelu got out. While Neelu paid the driver, Naina leaped out and ran to Raj, throwing her arms around her neck. Raj picked her off the ground and swung her around before hugging her tightly.

"I've missed you so much," he told her, "I can't believe this day has finally come."

Naina just nodded, grinning so widely that it filled her entire face.

"Uh, what's going on?" Nandini asked, "Can we finally know now?"

"Well we're here today to get these two lovebirds married." Neelu told them cheerfully, finally joining the group and coming to stand beside Aalekh, joining her arm through his. "You're all here to be witnesses."

"Marriage? Witnesses?" Abhimanyu asked, "Does Navin know about this?"

"No, and he won't either." Raj told him, "We chose you because we knew you'd be trustworthy. We need your support, if we manage to get legally married then we don't have to worry about anybody separating us."

"Well who are we to separate two people in love," Nandini said with a shrug, "Lead the way, and let's get you two married."

"Bole to… this is the best plan yet." Aalekh told them, "I wouldn't have guessed you two would do this."

They walked inside and approached the registrar.

"We're here to get married." Raj announced, not sure how else you were meant to get it done.

"Did you file a notice?" The registrar asked.

"Yes," Raj told him, "Thirty four days ago."

"Well what are your names then?"

"Rajveer Singh Shekawat and Naina Singh Ahluwalia." Raj informed him.

"And you are both above the required ages?"

"Yes we are," Naina replied, and they both showed their identification.

"Well then there shouldn't be any problem." The registrar told them, "We can conduct the ceremony now."

"Wait, wait!" Neelu told them, and pulled some garlands out of the plastic bag she was carrying. "If you're getting married then you should at least garland each other."

Naina and Raj happily garlanded each other, both grinning widely, Neelu taking a photo of it.

"And now can we proceed with the ceremony?" The registrar asked, sounding a little bored.

"Yes Sir, of course." Raj told him.

"Alright, then sign the forms, and then your witnesses should sign and you'll be officially married."

Raj and Naina both signed their names quickly, followed by Aalekh, Abhimanyu and Nandini, while Neelu took photos of everything.

The registrar then added his own name and stamped the form, before handing it over.

"You are now officially married." He told them, "Congratulations."

"Thank you, Sir!" Raj said enthusiastically, "Thanks so much!" then he turned to all of his friends, "And thank you to all of you, we couldn't have done it without you."

He then turned to Naina, gazing at her with love.

"Well, you're my wife now." He told her happily, "Which means that I don't have to stick to just holding hands with you any more."

And sweeping her up into his arms, he kissed her soundly, not caring about who was watching.

The sound of Abhimanyu's embarrassed coughing caused them to break apart and they parted reluctantly to find that their friends had all turned their backs. Naina blushed slightly but still couldn't get the grin off her face.

Raj held her hand tightly as they walked out of the registry office. They removed their garlands and Neelu placed them back into the bag while Raj put the certificate into his bag.

"Well let's treat the newly married couple to lunch," Abhimanyu said, "And then we'll give them some time alone before Naina has to leave."

"Thanks Abhi," Raj told him, and they headed to a nice restaurant for lunch where they toasted the newly married couple, chatting away merrily as they ate.

Finally Raj and Naina said goodbye to the rest, Raj promising to be back in an hour to take Aalekh back to KMA; giving him some money and asking him to go and buy some clothes so that their lie wouldn't be found out. Aalekh headed off with Neelu while Abhimanyu and Nandini also left together.

Raj took Naina to a park and sat down with her on the ground, wishing that she didn't have to go back again so soon.

"So we're married now," he told her, once again unable to stop himself from smiling.

"Don't think that that means we're going to have our wedding night now." Naina informed him sternly, "You'll have to complete the proper rituals first."

"Of course," Raj replied, "Otherwise Navin really would kill me."

They lay down on the ground and he placed his arms around her, as she lay with her head on his chest and her arm over his waist. He could be content to lie there with her forever, but he knew that they had very little time left together.

Pulling a small box out of his pocket, Raj handed it to Naina who sat up to open it.

Looking inside she found a thin gold chain with a heart shaped locket on it.

"I obviously can't give you a mangalsutra yet, so this will have to do for now." He told her. "I hope you like it."

"Of course I do!" Naina gushed, "I think this is the best birthday present that I've ever received, can you put it on me?"

Raj put the necklace around her neck and did it up, trying to shake the feeling that he actually was tying a mangalsutra.

"Can't you stay for just a bit longer?" Raj asked her, as they lay back down on the grass again, their hands now joined.

"Well I could if you want my parents to become suspicious about where I've really gone."

"Good point, if that happened then we might have one of the shortest lived marriages in history."

"Well mera pyaara pati, how about we make the best of our time together?" Naina asked him, rolling onto her stomach so that she was leaning on his chest, her face above his.

"I think we can certainly do that," Raj said, a sly grin coming onto his face, "After all, you are my wife now…"

And as Naina giggled, he began to kiss her all over her face before finally claiming her lips.

/

They barely arrived back at the bus station in time for Naina to catch her bus, and Raj kissed her on the cheek and hugged her one long last time before letting her go.

Watching the bus depart, he combed his fingers through his short hair, unable to get the smile off his face.

He was married.

To Naina.

Well perhaps not entirely properly, but at least it was legal, the rest would come in time.

And nobody except them and four of their friends had any clue at all.

Raj's grin then turned very mischievous.

It served Navin and Tanu right, after all, this was what they had wanted from the very beginning.

Could they really complain if Raj and Naina had decided to make Operation Marriage a success?

Whistling a happy tune, Raj got back on his bike and left to pick Aalekh up.

He might be married, but he still had to get back to the academy on time.


	23. Chapter 22

**Chapter Twenty Two**

Raj had not stopped smiling since he came back from the academy and Navin and Tanu were beginning to become suspicious

"Where exactly did you go today?" Navin asked him curiously.

"I told you, to buy clothes with Aalekh." Raj replied, trying to be less cheerful and failing terribly.

"You look awfully happy about buying clothes," Navin continued suspiciously, "Are you sure you're not planning something?"

Luckily Raj could answer this question honestly because he really wasn't planning anything.

The plan had already been executed perfectly.

"Navin, I'm just happy today." Raj told him, and then realizing that he was meant to be very unhappy at the moment, thought he had better come up with an excuse. "I talked to Naina and she really liked the present I got her for her birthday."

Navin looked relieved, as if he'd been worrying about Raj's sudden change of attitude.

"So what did you get her?" he asked.

"That my friend… is none of your business." Raj said with a grin.

"It is so," Navin replied, looking annoyed. "She's my sister and I need to know these things."

"Well she's my…. Girlfriend and I need to hide these things from her brother."

Navin glared at Raj, unable to believe that he actually wouldn't tell him what he got Naina for her birthday.

"Well maybe now that you're not getting married to my sister I'll withdraw my permission for you to be her boyfriend." He told Raj, looking quite annoyed.

"Well it's a bit too late for you to do that now." Raj replied, "And anyway, if I'm not getting married to her then it's your fault. You and Tanu are meant to be coming up with a solution for us. Otherwise you should remember my threat."

And despite the fact that they were best friends, Navin knew that Raj was serious. He really wouldn't let Navin and Tanu get married until Raj and Naina's problems were fixed.

"Raj, it's not easy to come up with a plan to get your parents to agree to your marriage," Tanu told him.

"Why not? You didn't have any difficulties coming up with a plan to make us fall in love!" Raj exclaimed, "Now come up with another one soon so that we can all get married on schedule."

And he walked off, leaving them both pondering over their options.

/

Almost a week later Neelu strolled into the academy in the afternoon, knowing that she wasn't supposed to be there but that she could probably get away with it since Brigadier Chandook and her father were friends.

"Oh god, what do you want?" Yudi asked her as soon as she walked into the canteen, and came over to where he was sitting with Shalini, Raj and Aalekh. "Because if it's money then you are seriously mistaken if you think I'm going to give you some."

"Chill bro," Neelu told him, giving a small smile as her eyes met Aalekh's over Yudi's head. "I'm here to see somebody else."

"Oh really, who?" Yudi asked her.

"Raj." Neelu announced, and motioned for him to come and join her. "Would you come outside with me for a minute?"

"Sure Neelu," Raj told her and followed her out as Yudi stared after them. Aalekh's expression didn't change, as he knew exactly what was going on, but Yudi of course did not have a clue.

"This is so not happening!" Yudi exclaimed and got up to follow them.

"Yudi you can't…" Shalini started to say, but it was too late, he was already gone.

Meanwhile outside in the grounds Neelu handed the envelope to Raj that she had come to give him.

"There's some really good ones," she told him, "You two look so cute together, I can't believe that you actually managed to pull it off successfully."

"I can't believe it either," Raj told her, grinning, "And they haven't even figured it out yet. Which means that I'd better hide these photos as soon as possible."

He had the marriage certificate kept safe in a plastic folder right at the back of his closet under a bunch of clothes. He planned to put the photos there with it as soon as possible. Raj quickly slipped the photos into his jacket pocket before anybody could see him with them.

"So how is our dulha anyway?" Neelu asked him, "Are you coping okay?"

"Well I'm missing my dulhan very much," he replied with a grin, "But we've talked on the phone every day since then, I'm trying to convince her to find some way to come to Ambala so that we can actually spend some time together."

"Well she can always stay at my place." Neelu told him, "Mum and Dad don't need to know who she actually is, I'll just tell them that she's a friend from college."

"That would be great, Neelu. Are you coming back inside?"

"No, I'd better leave or Yudi will get suspicious, and I don't need any more drama in my life right now. Tell Aalekh that I'll be waiting for him at the usual spot outside the academy after lights out."

"I will," Raj promised, and Neelu gave him a quick hug before she headed towards the gates of the academy.

Raj turned to walk back to the canteen, but before he could get there, his path was blocked by Yudi.

"Dude… what is going on?"

"Nothing, Neelu and I just had something to discuss." Raj answered very calmly, sure that Yudi hadn't been close by enough to actually hear anything.

"And what was that?" Yudi asked, "What could you possibly have to discuss with my sister?"

"Many things," Raj replied, "None of which I'm going to tell you about."

And he walked off, leaving Yudi stunned.

/

"Oh for god sakes Yudi, stop staring at me. I am not having an affair with your sister!" Raj exclaimed a little too loudly at dinner that night, quite fed up with the way Yudi had been behaving. "Honestly, we had something to discuss, we discussed it and then she left. We are not having a relationship of any type!"

"Then why did she hug you?" Yudi asked suspiciously, and Navin looked up from his dinner, suddenly thinking that it was important that he listen to this conversation.

"Because we're friends and she felt like hugging me!" Raj exclaimed, "Tanu has hugged me before too, that doesn't mean that she and I are having a relationship!"

Tanu nodded, "Very true." She remarked, trying to back Raj up. Navin began to relax, realizing that once again Yudi was overreacting about something.

"You really don't have much faith in me, do you?" Raj asked Yudi, "This is the second time you've thought I'm going out with your sister. Why don't you accuse someone else for a change?"

"Because nobody else has made me suspicious." Yudi told him, "Neelu hasn't come to the academy to see anyone except you, and she's done it twice so far now."

Yes, well that was because she always met Aalekh outside of the academy, Raj couldn't help but think, and he looked at his friend as if for support.

Aalekh pointedly looked away, there was no way he was revealing the truth. If Yudi reacted like this when he thought Raj was having a relationship with Neelu, how would he react when he found out the truth?

"Well it had better not be true or you will be in big trouble." Yudi told him, "Every brother at KMA will know never to introduce their sister to Rajveer Singh Shekawat."

Raj could see that Yudi really wasn't convinced yet.

/

Raj remembered when it was Navin glaring at him all the time, now it was Yudi. It seemed like it was his destiny to constantly be glared at for as long as he was in KMA.

"Can I just tell him the truth about you and Neelu?" Raj asked Aalekh desperately when they were alone, "Please? He's got to find out some time!"

"Of course you can," Aalekh replied, and Raj began to celebrate, until…

"As long as you want me to tell the truth about your marriage with Naina to Navin and Tanu."

"That, is blackmail."

"Of course it is, and don't think that I won't actually do it."

Well if he had to choose between the two of them as to who should be angry at him, Raj would definitely choose Yudi.

After all, it would be a lot harder for Yudi to kill him with a pillow in his sleep.

/

Making sure that nobody was around, Raj made his daily call to Naina. Whereas before he would call her every few days, now he couldn't stand to go even a day without talking to her.

He missed her so much, and it was even worse now he knew they had every right to be together.

He wanted to shout out to anyone listening that she was his wife, but knew that this would probably be the worst possible action that he could take.

"Well mere piyari biwi, how was your college today?" he asked her after she had picked up the phone.

"College was fine," Naina told him, "I spent most of it day dreaming anyway and then couldn't even tell anyone why I was so distracted. You're so lucky that you've at least got four people there that know you're married, I have no one to discuss it with."

"I know," Raj replied, "But there's only a couple of months left until I graduate from the academy, and then there's nothing to stop us."

"So have you come up with a plan yet?" Naina asked hopefully, "We need something really big… of epic proportions…"

"No, no plan on this end." Raj said, "Nobody has been able to think of anything yet that would actually work. What about you?"

"I came up with the last plan, it's your turn to come up with this one."

Raj laughed, "Oh, so we have turns now?"

"Well we do when I feel like it." Naina informed him, and he could almost hear the smile in her voice.

"So have I told you that I really miss you?"

"I think you've told me that every day since I left after the wedding," Naina replied, giggling slightly.

"Oh, well maybe I should stop then." Raj told her jokingly.

"Don't you dare! It's my right to hear that you miss me, and I intend to enjoy it fully."

"Well I haven't told you the latest news yet," Raj said, "Yudi thinks that I'm having an affair with Neelu."

Naina laughed, "You mean he still hasn't figured out the truth about her and Aalekh?"

"No, and he probably never will either. Those two are very good at hiding their relationship, and Aalekh has threatened to tell Navin the truth about us if I expose them."

"So why does Yudi think you're having an affair with Neelu?" Naina asked curiously, "Should I be jealous about this?"

"Definitely not, Neelu came to the academy to give me our wedding photos. She hugged me before she left and unfortunately Yudi was suspicious and spying on us."

"Oh wow, the wedding photos!" Naina exclaimed, immediately forgetting about everything else in the sentence, "I can't wait to see them!"

"Well do you want me to make copies and send them to you?" Raj asked, "I could send them to one of your friends' addresses or to a PO Box."

"There's no need for that," Naina announced a little smugly, "Because very soon I will be coming there to see them myself."

"What?" Raj exclaimed so loudly and happily that the orderly hurrying down the corridor almost dropped Brigadier Chandook's chai. "When are you coming? And how?"

"Well I'm coming in two weeks," Naina told him, "And as for how, I have been doing my best depressed Meena Kumari act in the house for quite awhile now and Ma and Baba are so sick of it, they're ready to do anything to improve my mood. And so I convinced them that I needed to travel to Ambala so that we could 'discuss our future'."

"Naina, you are the absolute best!" Raj wished she was there right now so that he could kiss her for this action. "This is why I love you so much, you always work out ways to make things happen."

"Well what did you think?" Naina asked mischievously. "Nobody can keep Naina Singh Ahluwalia away from her secret husband."

Raj laughed, "Shouldn't that be Naina Singh Shekawat?"

"Not yet," Naina said, "We haven't officially changed my name yet. After all, if letters from my college began to arrive at home with my new surname…"

"Then we would both be in very big trouble." Raj finished for her.

"Exactly."

"So obviously you'll be seeing Navin and Tanisha while you're here as well," Raj said, "How should we be acting while we're in front of them?"

"Well I really have perfected my Meena Kumari expressions over the past month," Naina mused, "So maybe we should go for tragically romantic, you know, like 'we love each other so much but we're depressed because we can't be together'."

"Well we've never done that before," Raj admitted, "So it will be something new."

"Get to work on your facial expressions," Naina advised him, "Trust me, it takes lots of practice." 

"Are you sure you can't come earlier than in two weeks?" Raj asked, "You know, like maybe next weekend?"

"Two weeks is not that far away, Raj. It's going to be difficult but we'll make it."

"I love you," he told her.

"And I love you too!" Naina exclaimed, "Just remember, I'm Meena Kumari and you're Dilip Kumar!"

Then she hung up the phone and Raj was left pondering.

Dilip Kumar…

He really needed to go and rent some old movies.


	24. Chapter 23

**Chapter Twenty Three:**

"What about this?"

"No."

"This then?"

"Definitely not!"

"Well what's wrong with it?"

"I don't know, Raj…" Abhimanyu tried to explain, wrinkling his forehead slightly, "It's just…"

"Just what?" Raj asked, getting frustrated. "I'm trying so hard… what's wrong with it?"

"Well… instead of looking tragic you just look…"

Raj waited, as Abhimanyu paused, trying to think of what to say, and then finally.

"Constipated."

"Constipated? I'm trying to practice my best tragic lover expressions here and you think I look constipated? Why don't you give it a shot!"

He sat back in his chair, crossing his arms and raising his eyebrows as if to say, 'well, go on.'

"Well, you know that I'm not used to all this acting…" Abhimanyu told him, "But I'll give it my best try."

And he gave Raj his best tragic expression.

Raj winced, "You're right," he told Abhimanyu, "That really does look like you're constipated."

"See I told you…" Abhi replied, and Raj sighed, rubbing his temples.

Naina was arriving the next day, and he still hadn't perfected his best Dilip Kumar impression.

Of course this could be because he was so incredibly happy to see her again that he just wasn't really able to get into the spirit of tragicness.

"Do you really have to do this?" Abhimanyu asked him, "I mean can't you just act naturally when you see each other?"

Raj stared at Abhi as if he'd gone absolutely crazy.

"Act naturally?" Raj asked, "I'm not sure that Naina and I remember how to act naturally in front of other people anymore. Ever since we found out about Navin and Tanisha's plan, we've always had some type of pretence to carry out."

"Well... maybe it's time to stop pretending and let them know how you really feel."

Raj gave Abhi his best scornful look. "As if…" he said, "Don't you think we should make Navin and Tanu feel just a little bit guilty after everything they've put us through?"

Abhimanyu had to admit that this was a very good point.

"Alright, then let's start practicing again," Raj scruched his face up in preparation, "I've only got until tomorrow morning to get this right…."

/

Naina was arriving by bus on Saturday morning, and would be leaving again on Sunday afternoon.

Raj knew that it wasn't a very long time, but at the moment a weekend together was the best thing they could hope for. And he knew that they were going to have a lot of fun this weekend.

Waiting at the bus station, he fixed his best hopeful, longing lover look on his face, gazing off into the distance to see if the bus was arriving. Sneaking a look at Navin and Tanu, he saw them both looking at him sympathetically, obviously feeling bad about the situation.

Score one for Raj.

Raj sighed dramatically, looking at his watch for about the hundredth time in the last two minutes.

"Hey, when did you get that watch?" Navin asked him, "It's new, isn't it?"

Raj raised his eyebrows, unable to believe that his friend had never noticed before now.

"Navin, Naina gave me this watch on Republic Day. Since then I hardly ever take it off, I can't believe you never saw it…" he shook his head, it just went to show how useless all of their planning really was. Navin and Tanu just did not get subtlety.

It was time to increase the Dilip Kumar melodrama.

"At least by wearing the watch, I can feel as if Naina is here with me." Raj sighed, looking down at it lovingly, "Otherwise I don't know how I could have endured all this time without her."

Navin and Tanu didn't seem in the least bit suspicious of his melodrama, in fact they looked even more upset for him. That was it, from now on Raj was going to be as melodramatic as possible.

Finally the bus appeared in the distance, making its way slowly towards them, and Raj sprang into action with a plan he had only come up with the night before.

Not even waiting until the bus had stopped properly, he ran forward, climbing his way inside and pushing past the passengers who were waiting to get off as Navin and Tanu looked on in shock and various passengers started yelling at him to get out of the way.

However Raj was undeterred, making his way to where Naina stood with her backpack already on, he grabbed her and hugged her. He was just glad that she was in the aisle seat rather than a window seat. If he'd had to climb over some uncle or aunty to get to her then it might have been rather awkward.

For her part, Naina looked completely and utterly shocked, she hadn't been expecting this at all.

"Raj, are you…" she started to say, but Raj cut her off, even as the other passengers stopped trying to get off the bus and crowded around to watch instead.

"No, Naina, I couldn't stop myself for any longer!" Raj announced loudly, "I can't live without you anymore, do you know what torment these days without you have been? I won't let you go back to Nainital, I won't!"

With a sparkle in her eyes, Naina got into the spirit of things and threw her arms around his neck, "Oh Raj, I can't live without you either!" she declared, "Nobody will ever separate us ever again, not even your parents!"

He hugged her properly then, kissing her cheek, and the bus erupted in applause.

"Alright people, show is over." The conductor said grumpily, "Now get off the bus."

"Do you think I should carry you off?" Raj asked her, "That could be a really nice effect."

"Uh, no I don't think so." Naina replied, "Don't forget what you told me when we first started our operation, 'subtlety is the key'."

Raj laughed, "Forget subtlety. I just found out that Navin never noticed the watch you gave me until now."

Naina laughed too, "Alright, we can be a bit melodramatic then." She told him, "But still no carrying me off the bus, the door is so narrow we're likely to hurt ourselves."

Raj contented himself with carrying Naina's bag for her and clutching her hand tightly, while gazing at her in what he hoped looked like anguished longing and not constipation.

"Oh Bhaiyya, Tanu…." Naina threw her arms around both of them emotionally, "You have no idea how hard it's been…"

"There, there…" Navin tried to tell her comfortingly, while patting her back, "We'll find a solution. And for now, why don't we go and sit somewhere comfortably…." He was well aware of the fact that many of the bus's passengers were hanging around to watch them rather than going on to their destinations.

"Chalo Bhaiyya," Naina said, wiping her eyes slightly dramatically, "Wherever Raj goes, I will follow."

/

Half an hour later they were all back at KMA and sitting in Raj and Navin's room, Raj and Naina on one bed and Navin and Tanu on the other. Naina hadn't let go of Raj's hand since they had left the bus and had a very pained and upset look on her face. Raj couldn't believe how much her acting had improved since they had first started 'Operation Confusion'.

"Bhaiyya, you and Tanu have to help us in some way…" Naina told them, "All of the rakhis that I've ever tied on your wrist… now is the time to fulfil those promises."

It was such a filmi dialogue that Raj felt like bursting into applause, and yelling out 'wah, wah', but he resisted. That really would've given them away.

But one thing was for certain, Naina really should join the drama club when she went home.

"Come on Naina, it's not that bad." Tanu tried to tell her reassuringly, "As soon as Raj finishes his training we'll be able to get you married properly, whether his parents agree or not." 

"But I want them to agree!" Naina practically wailed, "I don't want to be the daughter-in-law that they hate, I don't want to separate their only son from them!"

Raj cleared his throat slightly… thinking that they were probably overdoing it just a bit too much.

"Uh, Navin, Tanu… could we please have some time alone?" he asked them, "We really need to talk properly about this."

"Sure," Navin said a bit awkwardly, looking a bit relieved to be getting away from Naina, who seemed to be slightly hysterical. It was better if Raj calmed her down. After all, he was going to be her husband, he might as well start practicing now. "Just… don't lock the door."

Considering that he had done his brotherly duty, he and Tanu left the room, exchanging helpless looks with each other.

As soon as the door had closed, the mood in the room changed drastically. Giggling, Naina threw her arms around Raj's neck with so much force that he toppled backwards so that he was lying on the bed, while she lay on top of him.

"So," Naina said, adjusting herself so that her arms were crossed on top of his chest and she gazed down at him, "My pyaara pati… how was my acting?"

"Ek dum first class," Raj told her, grinning back and pulling her so that she was settled more comfortably against him, "If you decide to give up on doing an MBA then you could definitely go and join some saas bahu serials."

"Saas Bahu serials? I was aiming for Meena Kumari!" Naina exclaimed, disappointed. "I didn't remind you of her even a little bit?"

Raj just raised an eyebrow.

"Fine," Naina gave in, knowing that he was perfectly right, "Very nice move on your part by the way, but you could've warned me about the bus-wala plan."

"Well I just came up with it last night," Raj informed her, "It was good, wasn't it?"

"Superb," Naina told him, "Now before they come back and we have to look all depressed again, give me a kiss."

Raj was more than happy to oblige, rolling over so that he was in a better position to do so.

"Just a minute!" Naina exclaimed a second before his lips were going to touch hers, "Ah, we are on your bed aren't we? I mean, it would be a bit too weird if this was Bhaiyya's bed…" she looked down at the bed with an uneasy expression.

"Don't worry Naina, this is definitely my bed." Raj told her, and pointed to the bedside table where there was a photo of the two of them taken at Republic Day. He'd been able to display it publicly there ever since Naina's mother had informed Navin that the two of them wanted to get married.

"How sweet," Naina said, ruffling his hair with her fingers, "Now that definitely deserves a kiss…."

And she always believed that people should get what they deserve.

/

Navin and Tanu entered the mess together, both of them looking quite upset.

"Poor Naina and Raj," Tanu said with a sigh, "They're so desperate to be together, I hope we can manage to find a way to get them married."

Aalekh's jaw twitched slightly, Abhimanyu made an effort not to look up from his chai while nodding very seriously. Nandini just fixed her expression to look sympathetic, "Poor things," she agreed, very sincerely, "We're all praying for them." It was almost enough to make Abhimanyu crack up entirely and he hastily took a gulp of chai before he could burst out laughing.

"So then Raj definitely isn't interested in my sister?" Yudi asked for about the hundredth time.

"No Yudi, Raj is not interested in Neelu!" Shalini told him, very exasperated. She had been trying to convince him of this fact for the last two weeks and still hadn't been able to.

"But then why…"

"Who cares why!" Pooja said, rolling her eyes, "We all know that Raj's connection is with Naina, you're the only one who keeps dialling the wrong number."

"But…"

"Just drop it, Yudi!"

"Change your ring tone!"

"Really Yudibhai, that's enough."

Yudi sighed… sure, maybe Raj wasn't interested in Neelu but there was definitely something going on, otherwise why would she have come to meet him?

Yudi just had to figure out what it actually was.

/

Meanwhile in Raj and Navin's room, Naina finally pulled herself out of Raj's grasp, still giggling.

"Arre, where are you going?" he asked her, "I'm seeing you after such a long time and who knows when we're going to see each other again? At least let me kiss you to my heart's content."

"And you really think that Navin and Tanu are going to leave us alone in here forever?" Naina asked him practically, "And considering we can't lock the door, do you really want to be in the middle of kissing me when they come bursting in?"

Raj decided that she had a definite point, as forgiving as Navin was, he supposed he would at the very least have been slightly injured if they had been found in that position.

"Besides," Naina continued brightly, "I want to see our wedding photos. Get them out and show me."

Raj grinned, and digging through his closet, took them out from their position right at the back under all of his clothes. Naina opened the envelope and began looking through them.

"Ooo this is a nice one," she told Raj, "We look so cute in it. And how about this one, Aalekh and Neelu are looking so nice together!"

They were looking at the photos together, remembering the day and laughing when Navin opened the door very hastily, as if afraid that something was going on inside.

Raj thanked his lucky stars that Naina had pulled away from him before now, otherwise he would probably have had a black eye right now. Best friend or not, Navin was still quite a protective older brother, and Raj still remembered his comment about nothing more than holding hands before marriage… of course, they actually were married…

Raj and Naina both froze as soon as Navin and Tanu walked in, and Raj was very impressed with the way that Naina didn't immediately try to hide the photos. Instead she very slowly and casually put them back in the envelope before handing it to Raj. He strolled to his cupboard and put it back in, reminding himself to change the hiding spot later in case Navin grew suspicious.

"What were you two doing?" he asked them, "When we left you looked like you were going to burst into tears, and now you're laughing?"

Naina sighed sadly, back to her dramatics. "We were looking at some photos from Republic Day," she told him and Tanu, "Remembering happier times… everything seemed so simple in those days, we had so many hopes for the future…"

She leaned her head on Raj's shoulder with another sigh, and he nodded, patting her head comfortingly.

However Navin still didn't look convinced, gazing at them both a bit suspiciously.

"Well, we had better go downstairs now," Naina announced suddenly, "Maybe some of the others can help come up with a solution."

"I've got an even better idea," Raj told her, "Maybe you can finally convince Yudi that nothing is going on between me and Neelu."

"Anything for you," Naina said soppily, but she had such a mischievous grin that even Tanu began to wonder whether anything was going on.

They couldn't worry about it for the time being, because Raj and Naina were already leaving the room, so Navin and Tanu followed them down to the canteen.

"So what did you two talk about just now?" Navin asked, noticing that Naina's hair did seem to be slightly messier than when they left the room and…. No, he wasn't going to think about it.

"Well we agree with you of course," Raj told them, "We'll just have to wait until I finish my training and then we'll get married no matter what happens. But I'll do my best to convince my parents before that happens."

"And you needed to come all this way to figure this out?" Navin asked Naina incredulously.

Naina rolled her eyes at him and then remembered that she was supposed to be acting melodramatically. "No Bhaiyya, I came all this way because I was missing Raj so much," she told him, "I really can never repay you for introducing us… you're the best brother a girl could ever have, because of you I've found my jeevan saathi."

Naina gazed at Raj adoringly, fluttering her eyelashes at him, which the other two couldn't see. Raj tried not to laugh, and instead put an arm around Naina's shoulder, hugging her to him.

/

A couple of hours later, Raj left to drop Naina to Neelu's house, and Navin and Tanu were left alone to ponder the day's events.

"We really do need to come up with a solution," she told him.

"I know, I feel so bad…" Navin said, "But…" he felt a bit guilty for thinking it, "Don't you think they were acting a bit strangely? I mean, just a bit over the top. And then when we came back into the room they were looking at photos and laughing."

"Well maybe they were funny photos," Tanu said with a shrug, "Really I think it was very romantic the way they were so desperate to see each other."

But Navin had a doubt.

"Just come with me to our room for a minute, Tanu." He told her.

"Navin, do you really think that now is the time?" she asked him, "I mean…"

"Just come with me!" he told her, and taking her hand, took her up to the room before opening the door to Raj's closet and looking around for the envelope of photos.

He finally found it, tossed right at the back, and his hand brushed against something that felt like plastic but he ignored it.

He felt bad for looking through his friend's things without permission, but desperate times called for desperate measures…

And really, the way Raj and Naina were behaving right now reminded him far too much of the way he and Tanu had been acting when they began Operation Marriage.

Opening the envelope, he pulled out the photos and he and Tanisha started looking through them.

"These are definitely not from Republic Day," she commented.

"You can say that again," she commented, "But what exactly is going on."

And suddenly seeing Raj and Naina posing in front of the official looking building, garlands around their necks and grins on their faces, it was all too clear.

They couldn't have…

They wouldn't have dared…

Would they?

And Abhimanyu, Nandini, Aalekh and Neelu were in these photos too, did that mean that they were part of this conspiracy…

Navin needed more evidence.

Returning to Raj's closet, he once again rifled around in it until he found the plastic sleeve that his hand had brushed before, and pulling it out, he stared at it with his mouth open.

"Saala…." He swore.

"Actually Navin… that would be you." Tanu added, as she looked over his shoulder to see what he was holding.

Navin wasn't sure whether he was more angry at them for having done this without telling him, or proud that they'd managed to think of something this sneaky.

Well, two could play this game…

And if he didn't get them to admit to it before the weekend was over, his name wasn't Navin Singh Ahluwalia.


	25. Chapter 24

**Chapter 24:**

"We won't let them get away with this," Navin muttered to Tanu the next morning. He had snuck away to see her while Raj was taking a shower.

"Well what are we going to do then, confront them?" Tanu asked, wondering what it is that Navin had planned.

"No, that wouldn't be nearly cruel enough," he told her, "We need to give them a taste of their own medicine… all this time they've been pretending to be depressed and making us feel guilty… now it's their turn."

Tanu nodded in agreement, "And this time…" she told him, "We don't trust anybody else with our plan!"

"Agreed!" Navin told her, and they quietly high fived each other.

When Raj came to the mess, he found everyone at a table together chatting happily, especially Navin and Tanu, who seemed to be grinning most of all.

"You all look happy today," he told them, "What happened? Did you finally think of a plan?"

"Yes I think we have," Navin told him in a very serious tone, "Of course it still needs some work, but it could definitely solve our problem."

"Excellent!" Raj exclaimed, "So then go on, tell me what your plan is."

"Not yet," Tanu said, "Actually we feel so bad for what's happened with the two of you that we thought it would be nice if we all went for a picnic today… you know, just to relax for a bit."

"And we all means?" Yudi asked excitedly, happy at the thought of a picnic.

"We all means everyone here," Navin told them, "We'll go to that nice spot just out of town, I've already ordered some lunch for us from the local dhaba."

Oh yes, they were all going to go together… and nobody would be able to escape…

They set off shortly after that in Abhimanyu's jeep… being a prince had some benefits after all, like being able to have your own car at the academy.

They stopped on the way, first to pick up the food and then to pick up Naina and Neelu from Yudi's house. As Neelu stepped into the jeep she spotted a spare spot next to Aalekh and quickly squashed in next to him, trying to look innocent while she did so.

Raj was glad that the jeep was so crowded, it gave him an excuse to sit even closer to Naina without having to worry about Navin getting angry. She grinned at him as she got in and he lent over to offer her his hand, pulling her up into the back of the jeep. Settling beside him, he put his arm around her shoulders, glancing quickly at Navin to make sure that he wasn't going to object.

However Navin had a rather mysterious smile on his face.

"So you're going to join us today too, sis?" Yudi asked Neelu, "I thought you might have had plans with your friends."

"No way bro," Neelu replied casually, "Naina hardly ever comes to visit, I want to spend some time with her now that she has."

She certainly wasn't going to mention to him who else she wanted to spend time with…

"And besides," she added, "I like your friends, bro. It's fun hanging out with them."

Aalekh was trying very hard not to look at her right now, afraid that if he did, his face might give something away.

"So then…"

"Don't even ask!" Shalini told him sternly, "Don't even think about it!"

Yudi decided that he'd better not. It had taken him this long to convince her to go out with him, if he annoyed her any more then she might end up changing her mind.

"This was so nice of you bhaiyya," Naina told him sweetly, "Raj and I really need something to distract us from this terrible situation right now." She gave another melodramatic sigh and rested her head on Raj's shoulder.

Navin nodded sympathetically, but inside he was thinking 'Nautanki, you can't fool me anymore…'

He and Tanu exchanged a glance, missed by Naina and Raj who were now smiling at each other.

Navin had to admit, they did make a cute pair. In fact they were so cute that he was finding it harder and harder to stay angry with them, but that didn't mean that he was going to let them get away with this…

Not at all.

Once they arrived at the picnic spot, everybody climbed out of the jeep, stretching after the cramped ride.

"Do you think that Bhaiyya is behaving a little weirdly?" Naina asked Raj, "I mean he and Tanu don't seem to be worried at all today…"

"Even I think they're acting a bit strangely," Raj whispered back, "But Navin said that he had a plan, so maybe they finally figured out how to fix the situation for us."

"I certainly hope so," Naina told him, as they walked hand in hand to the spot that had been chosen for the picnic, "If we could find some sort of solution before the end of this weekend then I would be so relieved, there's not too long before you finish your training after all."

"So how is the happy couple?" Abhimanyu asked them, as he and Nandini came up and began walking alongside them, "Have you had a good time here this weekend, Naina?"

"Of course," Naina told them both with a smile, "Now I just have to figure out an excuse to come back again soon, otherwise the next time I see you all will be at your graduation."

"You'd better find a good excuse then, because I don't think I can go that long without seeing you," Raj said dramatically, "Either that or I'll have to run away from the academy to come to Nainital."

"What about you two?" Naina asked them, "Have you told your parents that you love each other yet?"

"Not yet," Abhi admitted, "We're thinking we'll introduce them to each other when they come for the graduation and hope that they figure it out for themselves."

"And if they don't?" Naina asked practically, "Then what?"

"Then we actually have to come out and tell them, but I'm hoping that they'll get the hint." Abhi said, "I don't think we should have too many problems."

"You're the lucky ones then," Neelu commented quietly, having joined them as they lagged behind the rest, "I have no idea how Yudi is going to react when he finds out about me and Aalekh, I'm just glad that we're not planning on getting married anytime soon, that way we'll have lots of time to convince them."

"And if you can't convince them?" Naina asked.

Neelu shrugged with a grin, "I've got plenty of practice with running away."

Further up ahead, Navin and Tanu glanced back from where they were walking with Yudi, Shalini, Ali and Pooja.

"And so all the conspirators are in the same place…" Tanu commented quietly to Navin, "Just wait until they find out that we know…"

"I can't wait to see the expressions on their faces," Navin added gleefully. "Now that will be something worth seeing."

"Navinbhai, it was so nice of you to invite us for a picnic today," Ali commented, "Otherwise we hardly ever get to go out of the academy."

"Haan, Ali's and my outgoing is very limited." Pooja agreed, "It's nice to finally spend some time together in the fresh air."

"Well today is a very special day," Navin said, a strange smile on his face, "Today we have Naina with us and hopefully we can finally solve this problem once and for all."

"That's wonderful," Ali replied very sincerely, "I've been praying that Rajbhai and Naina will be united once and for all, and I hope that finally it has come true."

"Oy, my Ranjha is so sweet," Pooja said lovingly, reaching up to pinch his cheek as Ali blushed.

"Pooja…" he protested.

"Oy rehne do," she told him, "Everyone here knows, there's no need to keep our love on silent mode!"

This comment just made Ali blush even more.

Eventually they settled down by a small lake on a blanket, spreading out the food.

After everybody had eaten and were chatting happily, Navin clapped his hands to get their attention.

"Well everybody, I have an announcement to make!" he told them, "As you all know, my sister Naina and our friend Raj are in love and want to get married."

There were quite a few nods at this, Raj once again had his arm around Naina's shoulders while she leaned against his side.

"Well Tanu and I have finally come up with a solution for them!" Navin announced, sounding very proud with himself, "It's not a lasting solution but it should at least help for the time being."

"Then tell us what it is, Bhaiyya." Naina said impatiently, hoping that it was something that really would help.

"We're going to get the two of them secretly married at the registry office!" Tanu announced loudly, and then stopped to watch the reactions.

Ali, Pooja, Shalini and Yudi all looked very pleased, although Ali looked like he might disapprove just slightly of secret weddings.

However the rest of them… Naina's and Raj's jaws dropped, as they both stared at Navin incredulously, before glancing at each other worriedly.

Abhimanyu was so shocked he spit out the soft drink he'd been drinking, narrowly missing the picnic rug. Nandini stared back at the two of them before turning around to look at Naina and Raj, a question in her eyes.

Neelu tried not to laugh, finding the whole thing rather funny and Aalekh… well, he never reacted to anything so they hadn't really expected him to this time either.

"Uh, Navin…" Raj tried to recover the situation. "Don't you think that this solution is a little bit extreme…. I mean, shouldn't we come up with a plan to convince my parents first?"

"Oh we'll still come up with a plan to convince your parents," Navin reassured him, "But at least for the moment you'll both know you're married and they can't marry you to anyone else. After all…" and he gave his best filmi impression, gazing at Naina with brotherly affection, "After all those rakhis my sister has tied for me, how can I abandon her now? How can I bear to see her so depressed and worried?"

He walked over to where Naina and Raj were sitting, and pulled Naina to him, hugging her fiercely and patting her back. "Don't worry Naina, this brother of yours won't let anyone separate you from your love!" he declared dramatically, "I'll bring the smile back to your face!"

It was Tanu's turn to want to clap, but she managed to resist. In fact she had so much self control that she didn't even give him a thumbs up while Raj and Naina weren't looking.

"Bhaiyya, that's so sweet of you…" Naina told him, "But…"

"But what?" Navin asked her, "You're worried that our parents will be angry, right? Don't worry, I'll handle them!"

They were very rapidly running out of excuses for not going to the registry office and Raj was starting to worry.

"But you have to give notices of marriages 30 days in advance!" He told Navin, "That means that Naina and I can only get married after 30 days."

"No problem," Tanu replied, "We already bribed them so that they would forget about the waiting period."

Raj wondered why he hadn't thought of that when he and Naina decided to get married…

"But it's a Sunday," Naina pointed out, "The office isn't open on Sundays."

"Oh yes it is," Navin told her, "We gave them such a big bribe that they're going to open it just for us. Now we'd better get going or we're going to be late!"

"But…"

"You two are making an awful lot of excuses," Tanu pointed out innocently, "You do want to get married don't you?"

"Of course…." Raj started to protest, and then his eyes narrowed and he stared at both of them. "You know, don't you?"

"Know what?" Yudi asked, completely clueless.

"Yes, know what?" Pooja added.

Nandini and Abhimanyu both suddenly look very awkward, Aalekh looked like he was planning an escape route while Neelu just seemed like she was enjoying the tamasha.

"Yes we know," Navin replied angrily, "And we also know that you were there, and you, and you and you." He said, pointing to each of the culprits in turn.

"Wait, where were they?" Yudi asked, still confused, "And why was Neelu wherever they were?"

"Why? I can't go anywhere without you, bro?" she replied, rolling her eyes.

"Navinbhai, exactly what is going on?" Ali asked, "Has something happened?"

"You're damn right, something has happened!" Navin told him, "What happened is that my sister and my best friend got married behind my back without telling me!"

"Um, sorry?" Naina offered, "But honestly bhaiyya, would you have let us go through with it if you knew? You kept saying that we weren't allowed to elope!"

"And I see that you didn't listen to what I said!" Navin replied, glaring at them both angrily.

"Navin, can you really blame us?" Raj tried to defend their actions, "And it's not like we've gotten married properly behind your back, we just went to the registry office… you'll definitely be there for the rituals!"

"And what if I go and tell both sets of parents what you've done?" Navin threatened, "Then they'll get your marriage annulled before you can even do the rituals!"

"But you won't do that, will you Bhaiyya?" Naina tried to reason with him soothingly, "Because you love us both so much!"

"But I still don't know what Neelu was doing there!" Yudi interrupted, and everybody rolled their eyes.

"Bro, I was there because I picked Naina up from the bus station." Neelu told him.

"Oh yes, there's some lovely photos of Neelu at the ceremony…" Tanu interrupted, shooting her a piercing gaze.

Neelu suddenly started to look a bit nervous, remembering exactly who it was that she was standing with in those photos.

"I'm sorry Navin," Raj told him genuinely, "We honestly thought that you would try to stop us if we told you… are you really very angry?"

"No…" Navin admitted, "Not that much, I was at first, but then I was quite proud at how sneaky the two of you had been in order to pull it off."

They looked at each other and both of them burst out laughing, everybody else relaxed, realising that the most serious part of the situation had finished.

"So we're forgiven?" Naina asked a bit nervously.

"Come and touch my feet and I'll think about it," Navin told her, "As your elder brother I have to give you both my blessings."

Raj gave him a funny look, "Navin I am not going to touch your feet. Forget about it."

"Then you can forget about my forgiveness and I really will be telling your parents." Navin replied stubbornly. "Now come and touch your wife's elder brother's feet."

Raj glared slightly, but they both came forward and touched his feet, very, very briefly. Navin touched them both on the head.

"There, you now have my blessings," he told them, then fixed Raj with a very strict gaze, "But they will IMMEDIATELY be withdrawn if I find you trying to do anything with my sister before you're properly married."

"Of course not," Raj told him nervously, "I would never even think of it."

"Well then let's enjoy the rest of the day with the happy couple," Navin said, "After all, my little sister has gotten married!"

Yudi pulled out his guitar and strummed a tune while the rest sang along, eventually Raj pulled Naina up to dance, and they laughed, much more relaxed now that their secret was finally out in the open and they didn't need to pretend anything anymore.

Raj realised that Abhimanyu was right, it really was much easier to just act naturally.

Finally it was time for Naina's bus and they dropped her to the station. She hugged everybody goodbye, Navin and Tanu last of all.

"Thank you Bhaiyya," she told him, "You're the best."

"No problem," Navin said, patting her head, "Don't worry, we'll come up with a solution soon."

They headed back to the jeep, giving her some time alone with Raj.

"I want to kiss you goodbye," he told her, "But I think Navin is still watching."

"Then you can hug me instead," Naina informed him, "And we'll save the kiss for when I see you again." 

"Promise?"

"Promise."

He gave her a long hug, reluctant to let go of her. Every time that Raj saw Naina it became harder and harder to say goodbye to her. The only thing that allowed him to do so was because he knew that the separation was only temporary.

"Have a safe trip back," He told her, leaning over to kiss her on her cheek, Naina returning the kiss on his other cheek.

"I love you," she whispered to him.

"I love you too." He gave her one more kiss on her hair and then waved goodbye as the bus departed.

Sighing, Raj walked over to where the rest of his friends were waiting. Abhimanyu patted him on the back encouragingly, knowing that he would be upset now that Naina was gone.

"Don't worry Jijaji," Navin said jokingly, "We'll think of something soon."

"You'd better," Raj replied, "Remember that yours and Tanu's marriage depends on mine and Naina's."

"Well at least we're finally brothers-in-law." Navin told him, "That's something to be happy about."

Raj smiled and slung his arm around Navin's shoulder, "Come on, let's go back to the academy. Very impressive plan today by the way, you really had us panicking for a minute there."

"Well, could you expect anything less from Tanu and I?" Navin asked, "After all, we had to catch up with you two."

/

Two days later, Raj was informed by the orderly that he had a phone call and he rushed to pick it up, hoping that it would be Naina.

However it wasn't, it was his father.

"What is it, Dad?" Raj asked, not really in the mood to talk to him. He was still rather annoyed and disappointed with his parents.

"Actually Raj, we've been thinking about your marriage." His father announced.

"Really?" Raj brightened up, "Then you've decided to accept Naina?"

"Well no, actually we were thinking about Sahni's daughter."

"Neelu?" Raj asked incredulously, "Dad, I already told you that I'm not interested in her, and yet you somehow think I would have changed my mind."

"Well we thought that you had," his father replied, "We'd heard from Mr Sahni that you two are getting on very well these days, that she even went to visit you at the academy."

It was Yudi. Raj just bet that this was all Yudi's fault, that he had blurted out something at home where his parents could hear it.

"Dad, I don't know what you've heard, but it's not true, Neelu and I are only friends." Raj told him, "And we certainly don't want to get married."

"Well the best marriages start from friendship," His father announced cheerfully, "And we've already arranged to come and see the girl next weekend so you had better be prepared to go by then!"

"But dad…"

"No buts… we're going to go and see the girl, then we'll make a decision."

"But dad…"

"See you next weekend, Raj."

And he hung up.

Raj stared at the phone.

Yudi was dead.

That bloody….

He forced himself to calm down, and think about this logically. How could he get out of this situation without admitting the truth… how could he…

Suddenly an idea occurred to Raj, his most brilliant idea yet.

Yes, this could definitely work.

He would need help, and some fellow co-conspirators, but this could definitely work.

Come next weekend he would be going to see Neelu.

He couldn't wait to see the results.


	26. Chapter 25

**Chapter 25:**

After Raj had developed the plan properly, the first thing he did was to call Naina to ask for her advice. Naina was silent for quite some time after he finished telling her, obviously thinking hard about it.

"You know what, I think this could actually work." She told him, and then in a more loving tone, "How did you get to be so smart?"

"Well whose husband am I?" he asked her, not able to help himself from grinning, "I had to catch up with you sometime, didn't I?"

"Have I told you how much I love you?"

"I don't think I remember."

"I love you so much that the next time I see you I'm going to kiss you… Even if Bhaiyya is there."

The idea both excited and scared Raj… he really did want a kiss from Naina… and they were married after all, which Navin now knew. It wasn't as if they had had their wedding night yet, so he didn't see how Navin could object to a kiss.

"Believe me Naina," he replied honestly, "The next time I see you I'm definitely going to kiss you, even if both Brigadier Chandook and Major Nair are there!"

Giggling, she wished him goodnight and hung up the phone.

Raj had a lot of work to do.

/

"This is not going to work."

"Yes it is."

"I can't do it."

"Yes you can."

"I won't do it."

"DO YOU WANT ME TO GET MARRIED TO NEELU?"

"Don't even think about it!"

"Then do this… for the sake of all four of us!" Raj told Aalekh desperately, and then thought about it again. "All six of us! Navin and Tanu are depending on this too."

"Fine… but I don't know about all this nautanki acting business…"

"Aalekh, are you kidding me?" Raj asked him, "I've only just realised exactly how much of a part you played in this, trust me… you're the biggest nautanki of us all."

That task done, he then went to call Neelu.

After all, it was her intended marriage too, she deserved to be able to ruin it as much as he did.

/

"I won't let you do this!"

Raj looked up from his breakfast at the person standing over him quite angrily. "Do what?" he asked perfectly calmly.

"You know perfectly well what!" Yudi replied, looking very angry. "I won't let you make my sister your second wife!"

Raj thought it was probably the first time in the history of KMA that six people spat out their chai all at once. In fact, Raj, Shalini and Aalekh were the only ones who didn't; Raj because he had expected this, Aalekh because he never reacted to anything and Shalini because… well, she hadn't been drinking chai at the time.

"Oy Khotaye, what are you doing?" Suriji yelled, "You can't make a mess of my mess like this!"

"I'm very sorry Suriji," Raj apologised, "We'll clean it up, I promise."

Suriji walked away, still grumbling, and Raj turned back to Yudi.

"Well if I am going to make Neelu my second wife then it's all your fault," he told Yudi perfectly calmly. The only reason he wasn't worried about Navin killing him was because Navin already knew what the plan was. "Because how else did your parents get the idea that we liked each other?"

And he glared at Yudi, incredibly hard.

Yudi suddenly looked quite nervous. "I didn't mean to!" he blurted out, "I just wanted to find out what she had been doing there, and maybe I asked her a bit too loudly…"

Everybody groaned at this.

"And that," Raj told him, "Is why you don't get to know about the current plan. Because I know that you can't keep your big mouth shut."

"Plan? So there's a plan?" Yudi asked, relieved, "I thought I was going to somehow have to stop you from marrying my sister."

"Yudi, do you honestly think that Neelu would agree to us getting married?" Raj asked him, "Do you think that Naina would allow me to get married again, and most of all do you think I want to get married again? I'm perfectly happy with the wife I have!" he declared loudly.

A bit too loudly.

Suriji dropped the jug of lassi he was carrying, creating an even bigger mess in the mess.

"Wife?" he asked, "Wife? Raj Putar, when did you get married?"

"Uh, not too long ago now." Raj replied awkwardly, "But it was sort of… secret."

Not so secret now that he'd blurted it out in front of the entire cafeteria.

"Then you and Navin Putar's sister finally got married?" Suriji asked happily, "Oy hoy, this calls for a celebration! Everything is on me today!"

"Wow Raj," Abhimanyu told him with a grin, "Maybe you really should get married more often."

Neither Navin nor Yudi found it very funny.

/

And so the day came when Raj found himself going with his parents to Yudi and Neelu's house, about to 'see the girl'. He couldn't believe how confident his parents were of this going well, they were about to get the shock of their lives.

It served them right.

After today, Naina would seem like the daughter in law of their dreams.

Raj couldn't help a grin coming to his face.

"See, he is happy," Raj heard his father whispering to his mother, "It will all be fine."

Yes, Raj thought, it certainly would be.

They were welcomed warmly by Yudi's parents and slightly less warmly by Yudi. Since everybody had refused to tell him what the plan was, he still had no idea what was about to happen and he looked decidedly nervous.

"Raj, how wonderful to finally meet you properly." Yudi's father told him, "We've heard so much about you from both Yudi and Neelu."

"I've heard a lot about you from Yudi too, Sir." Raj replied, trying to sound polite. He wasn't going to mention exactly what it was that he'd heard about him from Yudi since it had been mostly negative…

They sat down on the couch, and Mrs Sahni nodded at Yudi expectantly, "Why don't you go and bring your sister down?" she asked him.

Yudi was gone for a few minutes, and when he came back in, he looked a bit uncertain. "I don't know if Neelu is ready yet."

"Don't be silly!" Neelu said from behind Yudi, pushing past him, "Of course I am."

She walked in wearing ripped jeans and a t-shirt and immediately sat down on the couch between her parents. "Hey Raj," she addressed him casually, "Hi Uncle and Aunty."

"Neelu Beti, don't you think you should go and wear something else…" her mother told her quite nervously.

"Why, Ma?" Neelu asked her, picking up a sweet and starting to eat it, "I'm not one of those salwar kameez type girls, they might as well see me in the clothes I'll be wearing after marriage."

"So you like these types of clothes then, Beti?" Raj's mother asked her, trying to make conversation.

"Well yes, and dresses… and sometimes mini skirts too." Neelu told them, "It depends on my mood." Then she gestured to the tea and snacks on the table. "Oh please, help yourself."

Raj enthusiastically did so, piling some sweets on a plate and starting to eat them. This was going to be one of the most amusing things he'd ever seen and the brilliant thing was, he didn't even have to put too much effort in.

"So what type of things do you like to do?" his mother continued, deciding to have another shot, "What are your hobbies?"

"Well I went to this brilliant Greenpeace protest last week," Neelu told them, "You know, they wanted to cut down this section of forest so we chained ourselves to the trees, I was there for four days before they finally gave up!"

Raj nearly choked on his laddoo when he saw the look on his mother's face. He wondered whether she was thinking about how she should explain to her friends that her daughter in law wasn't at home because she was chained to a tree.

"Anything else you like to do?" his father asked, a strange look now on his face.

"Well I love going out dancing and drinking with my friends," Neelu told them, "I hope you don't have a problem with that because I don't plan to stop after marriage." She gestured at Raj then, "He's welcome to come with me of course."

"Thanks Neelu," Raj told her, trying to sound sincere, "That's very nice of you, I can't wait."

"And I think we'll make a good pair," Neelu said, "Because I don't mind if Raj stays friends with Naina as long as he doesn't mind me seeing my ex-boyfriends sometimes."

"Ex-boyfriends?" Raj's mother asked, sounding a bit shocked. "How many are there?"

"Oh a few," Neelu replied airily, "Of course I don't see all of them anymore, one is in prison now, and one has fled the state…"

Oh yes, Raj thought, I bet you're regretting refusing to let me get married to Naina right now.

He was struggling not to laugh because the look on Neelu's parents' faces was almost as funny as the look on his mother and father's faces.

And the look on Yudi's face… Raj just couldn't wait to see how he reacted when they reached phase two of the plan.

"But there's one in particular who might be a problem," Neelu added, "He was really in love with me and I loved him too, in fact we just broke up recently because I knew Mum and Dad wouldn't agree. I don't know if he'll be willing to let me go."

If everything worked to plan then now was when the doorbell would ring.

Silence.

No doorbell.

Maybe they hadn't timed it right…

"And who's that?" Raj asked her, hoping that their timings hadn't been too messed up, "Do I know him?"

"Oh I think so," Neelu began casually, "It's…"

And the doorbell rang.

"Yudi, would you answer that?" his mother asked him, looking very nervous. She couldn't believe her daughter would behave like this, this proposal was slipping out of their hands in front of her eyes.

The doorbell rang again.

"Yeah, I'm coming!" Yudi yelled out.

"You had better be, Nautanki Saala, because if you don't open this door I'm going to break it down!"

Raj and Neelu exchanged grins as their parents looked at each other shocked.

"Oh no, he's found out!" Neelu exclaimed, trying to look worried. "I have no idea what he'll do when he finds my marriage is being arranged to someone else, he's quite possessive you know."

Meanwhile at the front door…

"Aalekh what the hell are you doing here?" Yudi whispered furiously, and then… "Is this part of the plan?"

Aalekh winked at him, and then pushed roughly past Yudi to enter the house and made his way to the living room angrily.

"Neelu, how could you do this to me?" he yelled, "I'm telling you, today it's either him or me, one of us is going to die!"

"Woah, woah, no need for dying!" Raj told him, doing his best to look scared, "You can have Neelu, I was never interested in this marriage, they pressured me into it!"

"Trust me Aalekh, I never wanted to marry him!" Neelu gushed, "My parents threatened that they'd never let me out of the house again, but I knew you'd come to rescue me!"

Raj wondered whether she'd been taking acting lessons from Naina…

"Are you sure?" Aalekh asked her, doing his best to glare threateningly at everybody else assembled.

Yudi's jaw had dropped, and he stared at the scene in front of him, trying to speak and unable to.

"I'm sure, Aalekh! You're the only one for me!" Neelu exclaimed, stepping over the table with the sweets to get to him.

"And you, saala! Don't even think of coming near her again!" Aalekh mock threatened Raj.

Raj had to admit, Aalekh was doing a rather good job. He really was Nautanki No 1.

Then Aalekh turned to Raj's parents, taking a step towards them threateningly.

Raj almost felt bad about the way they cowered back slightly.

Almost.

No, not really.

"And if you think about getting your son married to Neelu again, then you won't have a son left." He told them, pointing his finger menacingly before turning back to Neelu.

"Chal Neelu," he told her, grabbing her hand.

"We'll go somewhere where our love is understood!" Neelu exclaimed dramatically, "We won't stay here where they want to separate us just because you're a poor, criminal orphan! Let's go and get married in a temple somewhere!"

With a last menacing glance at everyone assembled, Aalekh and Neelu left the house, his hand still in hers.

The roar of a bike's engine was heard outside and they were gone.

"Well…" Raj's mother tried to find something to say and failed miserably.

Raj tried not to burst into laughter and only just succeeded.

"I think we should go now." His father finally said, "It was lovely to visit your house… but I don't think we'll be fixing this relationship."

Yudi's parents couldn't think of anything to say to that in return after what had occurred so they just nodded.

Yudi followed Raj and his parents out before pulling Raj aside.

"What happened just then… was it all a drama? Just put on for show?"

"Well, not all of it…" Raj admitted.

"Then Neelu and Aaalekh…"

"Have been going out for quite awhile now," Raj informed him, "You never noticed because you were always too busy accusing me."

"They're not really going to go get married in a temple somewhere are they?" Yudi asked worriedly.

Raj shrugged, he honestly had no idea.

/

"Well that was disappointing," his father said once they were back in the car, "I had no idea that Sahni's daughter would be like that."

"Well I could've told you if you'd ever asked." Raj retorted, sounding quite annoyed.

"Never mind, there's still quite a few girls left, we'll…" his mother started to say, and Raj finally snapped.

"No Ma, you won't!" he told her, "I already know who I want to marry and I won't marry anyone except Naina and neither will I go to see any more girls I'm not interested in. So if you ever want to have any grandchildren you had better be willing to accept the girl I've chosen."

And after that he refused to talk for the rest of the ride back to the academy. He didn't even say goodbye properly, just left the car as soon as possible and went inside.

"So how'd it go?" Navin asked him as soon as he walked into the games room where they were all waiting to hear the result.

"I think that Naina and I are finally going to get properly married." Raj announced with a grin.

And it was about damn time too.


	27. Chapter 26

**Chapter 26:**

"You honestly told them that you were going to get married in a temple?" Naina questioned Neelu as they drove from the bus station to the academy. She had arrived a day early before graduation, and while she had already heard the story in detail from Raj she wanted to hear Neelu's version of it as well. "And then what did you do?"

"Well actually we went and saw a movie…" Neelu admitted, "I thought that going to get married in a temple would be a bit too filmy for Aalekh and me, it's more yours and Raj's style really."

Naina giggled as she imagined Neelu and Aalekh calmly watching a film in a theatre while her family frantically worried that she had gone to get married.

"So what did you tell them when you got home?" Naina asked, "I'm surprised they haven't locked you up and refused to let you out."

"Well you see the really brilliant thing is that on the way home we bought a couple of garlands… and because I'm refusing to say anything about it my parents still don't know whether I'm actually married or not!"

Neelu and Naina both burst into laughter, as Naina reached over and gave Neelu a high five.

"Thanks so much for doing that for us," she told her, "I just really wish that I could've been there to see it!"

"It was definitely something to see… the look on Raj's parents' faces when Aalekh threatened them, now that was the best part."

They burst into laughter again, and Neelu slowed the car down just in case she crashed it from laughing too much.

"I just hope it gave them the shock they need to realise what a great daughter-in-law I'll be," Naina told her jokingly, "Otherwise I have no idea what else what we can do to get them to accept me."

"Well you could always get pregnant," Neelu suggested, "Then they wouldn't have any choice except to accept you to save the family name."

Naina gave Neelu a very strange look, "Let's please leave that one as the last possible option," she told her, "I think I would prefer not to be an unmarried mother."

"But you are married." Neelu pointed out to her.

"Good point…" Naina admitted, "But still, first let's see if they've changed their minds."

Naina was quite excited because Raj didn't actually know she had arranged to arrive a day early, as far as he knew she would be turning up with her parents tomorrow morning for the graduation ceremony.

She wondered whether he would remember his promise…

Even if he didn't, she remembered hers.

/

Since it was their graduation the next day and all of their drills and exams had now been completed, the second year cadets had been given the afternoon off.

"Yaar, why can't tomorrow come any faster?" Raj complained to nobody in particular, sighing as he sat back on the grass.

"Why are you so eager to graduate?" Yudi asked him, "I'm really going to miss this place."

"You idiot, he's not eager to graduate, he's eager to see Naina." Nandini informed Yudi.

Raj nodded to confirm what Nandini was saying, sighing and leaning against Navin's shoulder.

"Navin, I really love your sister." Raj told him seriously.

"Raj… I think I figured that out quite awhile before now." Navin replied, an amused smile on his face.

"No, I mean I really, really love her… I really, really, really love her, I…"

"We get the idea!" Tanu yelled to get him to shut up before he could repeat it yet again. "You love Naina, it's very sweet, etc, etc now hurry up and get married properly so that Navin and I can finally arrange our own wedding."

"You don't worry Tanu," Raj told her, "After Aalekh and Neelu's performance, my parents are going to be begging Naina's parents to let her marry me."

He settled against Navin, a dreamy smile on his face, leaning his head on Navin's shoulder. However his daydreaming was rudely interrupted when Navin shook him off.

"Oy Devdas, I'm not your personal pillow." He informed Raj, "And stop looking so love sick, there's only one day until she arrives."

"Oh sure, make fun of me." Raj grumbled, as he got up and shifted himself so that he was leaning against Aalekh instead. "You've had your girlfriend with you here this whole time, in fact all of you have… I'm the only one who's had to have a long distance relationship!"

Aalekh tried to pat Raj's shoulder comfortingly and Raj slumped down even more, grumbling quietly.

"Nautanki…" Aalekh muttered.

"Well who told you to fall in love with someone who lived so far away?" Abhimanyu asked him, "That's not our fault."

"No… but it is Navin's and Tanu's." Raj said practically, "They were the ones who told me to fall in love with her."

"We're not going to start this again are we?" Navin asked, "I think that Tanu and I have already paid more than enough for what we did."

"I'm not quite sure about that…" Raj started to say, but what he saw at the front gate of the academy caused him to stop mid sentence and he quickly stood up, unable to quite believe his eyes.

Because standing there with Neelu slightly behind her was Naina, his Naina, as beautiful as ever and grinning at him with a look of such happiness on his face.

Man he loved her, he really, really loved her…. Okay, he wasn't going to waste time going through that again.

Before the others had even noticed Naina or worked out what was going on, Raj was already running towards the gate.

Skidding to a stop in front of Naina, before even saying anything he grabbed her and hugged her tightly, wanting to reassure himself that she really was there.

"Don't you remember your promise?" Naina asked him teasingly, but there was a light in her eyes that was doing funny things to his stomach.

"Promise?" Raj asked her and then suddenly remembered. Turning around he saw that Navin was watching them both, a smile on his face… Turning to the other side he saw that at that exact moment Major Nair had decided to come out into the grounds and was currently walking towards them….

To hell with it!

Deciding that he honestly didn't care anymore, Raj cupped his hands around Naina's cheeks and kissed her soundly, as her arms went around his neck and his shifted to her waist… and as the kiss went on and on, Raj honestly forgot about everything else, ignoring the whistles he could hear in the background, the shout that was probably from Navin and…

"CADET SHEKAWAT WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING ON ACADEMY GROUNDS!"

Startled, Raj and Naina broke apart, while Raj did his best to look both repentant and embarrassed.

But really he was finding it very difficult not to break into a grin.

"I'm very sorry Sir," he told Major Nair, trying to sound sincere, "Really I didn't…"

"Don't think that just because you're graduating tomorrow you can start breaking this academy's discipline!" Nair told him angrily, "I can still give you a detention today, you know."

"Oh come on Major-saheb," Suriji told him, hurrying over quickly since he had noticed the commotion, "Let the children be, it is their graduation tomorrow after all…"

Major Nair grimaced but nodded, "Fine, I'll forgive it this once," he told Raj, "But no more kissing on academy grounds!"

"Of course, Sir! Never again, Sir!" Raj told him, because since he was graduating tomorrow it wouldn't be too hard to keep that promise… he could stop himself from kissing Naina for one day couldn't he?

Grinning, he joined hands with her, and along with Neelu they walked over to the rest of the group.

Neelu immediately went to sit beside Aalekh, resting one arm on his shoulder and leaning against him slightly. Yudi regarded the two of them suspiciously, still trying to work out whether they actually had gotten married that day or not.

"Raj, please never do that again in front of me, or I will be forced to hit you due to my brotherly duties." Navin told him after he had hugged Naina hello, shaking his head to try and get the image out of my mind.

"Chill Navin, in case you're forgetting, we're already married." Raj told him, sitting down so that he was sitting behind Naina with his arms around her waist, leaning his chin on her shoulder. "And besides I really, really love her, I really…."

"ALRIGHT, WE GET THE IDEA!" Everyone yelled at once, and Raj shut up, looking a bit embarrassed but just hugging Naina to himself even tighter.

"So does he tell you this often?" Naina asked them curiously.

"You have no idea…" Tanu replied, "He's been telling us quite a few times a day ever since we all found out about your marriage."

"So sweet," Naina said with a grin and turned her head to kiss Raj on the cheek.

"Hey, what did Nair say about that?" Navin warned them jokingly.

Raj just shrugged, right now he really didn't care.

Because he had Naina in his arms, and as far as he was concerned he was never, ever going to let her go ever again.

/

The next day dawned bright and everybody excitedly waited for the graduation, greeting their parents, relatives and friends as they arrived.

Naina and her parents were some of the first to arrive as they had gotten into Ambala late the night before and joined her at the hotel.

Navin and Tanu both came to welcome them, and there was much hugging since Mr and Mrs Ahluwalia hadn't seen either of them since they had come to talk to Raj's parents.

Raj came forward and touched both of their feet, a small smile on his face as he thought that he was actually getting his parents-in-law's blessings for the first time after marriage.

"Uncle, Aunty, it's so good to see you again." Raj greeted them, "And I hope that this time it will have a much better outcome."

"I hope so too, Raj Beta." Mr Ahluwalia told him, because he really had been looking forward to having the young man as his son-in-law. It was obvious how much he adored their daughter by the way he was currently gazing at her.

A short while later Raj's parents arrived but there was no time for anything to be sorted out because the graduation ceremony was due to start.

All of the friends and relatives watched proudly as the cadets were officially declared to be members of the Indian Army, and there were quite a few claps and whistles both from the crowd and the cadets themselves when Navin was declared to be best cadet.

The ex-cadets were just coming forward towards the crowd when Raj's parents suddenly spotted Aalekh. He gave them a suitably menacing glare and they quickly looked away, heading towards Raj.

Aalekh approached Yudi's parents, touching their feet in his best melodramatic manner, "Hello Uncle and Aunty," he told them, and they nodded nervously.

"Yes, congratulations Beta," they told him, because for all they knew, he was actually their son-in-law by now…

Neelu threw her arms around his neck hugging him, before turning to give Yudi a hug. After they'd congratulated him, he made sure that they came and met Shalini's parents.

After all, when it had taken him this long to find a girlfriend, he didn't want to take too long to introduce her to his parents.

Meanwhile, Nandini and Abhimanyu's parents were also meeting each other, with Abhimanyu's father's servants standing in the background at a suitable distance. Luckily it seemed to be going well, and Raj gave his friend a thumbs up from a distance.

Ali and Pooja were the only ones who weren't going to be admitting their relationship today. They had decided that it would be best if their parents met each other once again, but then they would go and talk to them about it separately in private. Needless to say, both of them were very nervous.

Raj came and touched his parents' feet, before hugging them.

"We're so happy, Raj Beta," his mother gushed, "I felt so proud seeing you in your uniform today."

Raj couldn't say how relieved he felt, this was the first time either of them had been proud of the fact he wanted a career where he would wear a uniform. It had to be a good sign… it was time, definitely…

"Ma, Dad, can we go and say hi to Naina's parents?" he suggested, "And maybe discuss something with them?"

His parents both nodded, and Raj felt like punching the air in triumph. Instead he calmly led them over to where Mr and Mrs Ahluwalia stood with Navin, Naina, Tanu and her family.

"Hello Mr Ahluwalia, Mrs Ahluwalia, it's lovely to see you again and congratulations on your son becoming best cadet." Mr Shekawat greeted them politely, and the contrast from the last time they had met was extreme.

"Thank you," Mr Ahluwalia replied, sounding a little surprised, "It's good to see you again too."

"Actually we were thinking that now that Raj has finished his training, perhaps he is mature enough to make up his own mind about marriage." Mrs Shekawat continued, "And since neither of the children have changed their minds, maybe we can set a date."

Mr and Mrs Ahluwalia stared at them, as if unable to believe it.

Tanu's parents looked absolutely delighted, finally seeing the way clear for their daughter and Navin to get married.

"Well that would be wonderful of course," Mrs Ahluwalia replied, finally able to speak again. "Why don't we go and sit down somewhere after the function ends today and work it all out."

"Well we would like a big traditional wedding of course…" Raj's mother was saying as she walked off together with Naina's mother.

Mr Ahluwalia leaned over to whisper in Navin's ear as they all followed them, "What on earth happened to make them change their mind like this?"

"Trust me dad, it's a very long story… and one that we'll save for another time." Navin told him.

Once the parents had walked off and were a safe distance away, Raj turned to Naina, a grin on his face.

"So Naina, we're finally going to get married." He told her.

"Again," Naina reminded him.

"Well I hope that this time you're ready to change your name!" Raj grinned, "Because very soon you're going to become Mrs Naina Singh Shekawat officially!"

"I can hardly wait," Naina promised him, and unable to control himself, Raj threw his arms around her, kissing her again.

"LIEUTENANT SHEKAWAT, WHAT DID I SAY ABOUT KISSING ON THE ACADEMY GROUNDS?"

But Raj honestly didn't care anymore.

From now on he was going to kiss his wife anytime he wanted to, and nobody was going to be able to stop him.


	28. Chapter 27

**Chapter 27:**

It was Raj's wedding day, well, his second wedding day, and he had never been so nervous in his entire life.

Oh he wasn't nervous about getting married, he was absolutely thrilled about that, for one thing, Naina and he would finally be properly married, all required rituals done.

Which meant that Navin could no longer threaten him not to do anything more than hold hands.

Which meant that they could finally have their wedding night.

Not that that was what Raj was most excited about in terms of getting married.

No, definitely not.

Because if it was then Navin certainly was going to kill him.

Anyway, the main point was that Raj was nervous because after everything that had gone wrong so far in their romance and all of the obstacles they had overcome and all the schemes they had created, he couldn't believe that today's wedding would go smoothly.

He wasn't sure when or where, but something was sure to go wrong.

And so, sneaking away from the crowds of people who were at his house to help prepare for the wedding, he went to call Navin.

"Navin," he whispered, not wanting to be heard, "Is everything going alright on your end?"

"It's going fine Raj, you don't need to worry." Navin tried to reassure him. "Naina is feeling a bit nervous but she says she'll be fine once you get here."

"Actually I was thinking… do you think you could bribe the pandit to make the wedding a little earlier and do the mantras a bit faster?" Raj asked him.

There was silence on the other end of the line.

"Goodbye Raj, I'm going to hang up now." Navin told him, "I'll see you when you arrive with the baraat."

"But…"

The phone was put down with a decisive click.

Traitor…

Raj supposed that he would just have to wait the remaining three hours to get married to Naina if the priest couldn't be bribed.

"Come on yaar, what are you looking so glum about?" Abhimanyu asked when Raj wandered back into his room. "It's your wedding day!"

"But why can't it be my wedding right now?" Raj asked, "Why did the priest choose such a late auspicious time? I've already been waiting two weeks from the time my parents agreed!"

"Well I don't know why you're complaining when you spent the whole two weeks with Naina," Yudi told him sensibly, "At least you two were together for once."

Yes… a smile came to Raj's face as he thought about the last two weeks which had been absolutely perfect.

Taking Naina out places, walking around hand in hand or with his arm over her shoulders, going to movies, going out dancing… In the two weeks they had had before the wedding they had managed to squeeze in all of the dating activities they had missed out on in the last few months.

"Hai…." He said, a dreamy look settling on his face. In just three hours he would finally be married to Naina properly once and for all.

"So who were you calling just now, Rajbhai?" Ali asked him, "Your lovely bride?"

"No, my lovely saala." Raj said, looking a bit upset again, "He refused to bribe the pandit to speed up the marriage."

All of his friends starting laughing at this, as it was exactly the type of reply that they expected from Raj. Practically every male cadet of KMA as well as his school friends were with him that night. The only one missing was Aalekh, who was over with Naina.

This was for two reasons, the first being the bond he shared with her.

The second being that if he ever turned up at Raj's house, his parents were likely to have a heart attack.

Raj glanced at his watch again, two hours and fifty five minutes to go.

But he could wait.

/

Meanwhile at Naina's house she was currently sitting with her friends as they helped to dress her up, everyone giggling and teasing her.

"Don't tease me too much Tanu Bhabi, it's your turn in two weeks time!" Naina told her warningly, a smile on her face.

Tanu blushed, she had waited so long to get married to Navin that she couldn't believe it was finally about to happen. They had had their official engagement the day before at Naina and Raj's sangeet and mehndi ceremony.

"And we all know what Tanu has gone through in order to make her lifelong connection with Navin," Pooja teased the other girl.

"Truly," Naina said, "I can't think of any other girl who would go to such lengths in order to marry my brother."

"Well you and Raj have gone to just as much effort!" Shalini told her, "I mean the things you did in order to get this marriage to happen…"

She picked up an earring from the assortment laid out on the bed, holding it up to Naina's ear to see how it looked. From their initial very cool reaction to her, Raj's parents now seemed determined to give Naina as many presents as possible and be as nice to her as they could.

Naina wasn't sure whether it was because they'd been won over by her charming personality or because they were afraid that if she didn't marry Raj they'd have to find him a girl like Neelu.

She was hoping that it was the first one but she honestly wasn't sure.

"But I'll say one thing for sure," Naina told them all, "We never could have gotten his parents to agree without the help of Neelu and Aalekh, and so Neelu I am now solemnly promising you that whatever help you two need to get married, Raj and I will definitely give it."

Neelu laughed at this, "Thanks Naina, but I think our marriage is quite far off at the moment. For one thing I really like keeping my parents guessing about whether we actually got married that day or not."

"So what film did you actually see that day?" Naina asked her curiously.

"Actually… I don't remember." Neelu admitted, "I wasn't really paying much attention to the movie."

And she blushed slightly, leading to a whole new round of oooooooooos and teasing.

In fact it did seem to be the marriage season of KMA cadets. Ali and Pooja's parents were still in discussions but it looked like they would be getting married in the near future, and Abhimanyu and Nandini's engagement was going to be held a week after Navin and Tanu's marriage.

Shalini and Yudi were the only ones who didn't have any immediate plans, since they hadn't really been dating long enough to think about getting married just yet.

Besides, Yudi was just really, really, really happy that he finally had a girlfriend.

"Well girls, the Baraat is due to arrive in an hour!" Nandini announced after looking at the clock, "So we only have that much time to make Naina the most beautiful bride ever and then prepare ourselves for our own beloveds to arrive!"

"Nandini, mine is downstairs already," Neelu announced, "Does that mean that I need to be ready first?"

Naina smothered a giggle, thinking that Neelu really was the perfect match for Aalekh, both of them were the biggest nautankis she'd ever met.

"Just remember that you and Aalekh should try to avoid being seen by Raj's parents," Naina reminded Neelu, "Otherwise they might guess that the whole thing was a set up."

"Don't worry," Neelu told her, "No matter what, we'll get you and Raj married today, and not even his khadoos parents are going to be able to stop us!"

And Naina truly believed that.

Because after waiting for such a long time, there was nothing that could possibly stop her from getting married today.

Fire, flood or earthquake, she was going to take those pheres with him.

/

Finally the baraat left the house, making its way towards the marriage hall, and for the first few minutes Raj was quite enjoying himself, his friends dancing around him, sitting on the horse.

Then he started wondering why these processions were so damn slow. In fact, his horse was going at a snail's pace.

Checking to see that nobody was looking he nudged the horse with his heels trying to make it go faster. Surely if it broke away from the crowd, everyone would just have to dance much faster and they'd all get there much earlier.

But his plan was ruined as Abhimanyu grabbed the horse's bridle, having seen what he was doing.

"Nice try, Raj, but no way. You're only going to get married once… actually, twice… this being the second time… but you're only going to have one of these processions once and we're all going to enjoy ourselves dancing."

Damn.

Traitor.

First Navin and now Abhimanyu, was nobody on his side tonight?

Raj sighed and decided he might as well enjoy himself, after all, they would get there eventually even if they were going awfully slowly.

/

The moment the baraat reached the house, one of Naina's college friends yelled in excitement, pointing out the groom.

"Wow Naina, great choice! Come on girls, let's go and welcome them!"

"Yes Tanu, great choice." Naina told her soon to be sister-in-law with a smile. "Thank god you chose Raj to set me up with rather than anybody else."

"Well we did consider some of the other guys…" Tanu admitted and then at the glare from Naina very hastily added, "But in the end, Raj was the only choice we ever could have made."

"Just as well," Naina told her, and they peered out the window to watch the arrival.

/

As Raj and his friends reached the hall, the girls ran out to meet them, joining in the dancing happily. Navin and Aalekh also came out, Navin helping Raj off the horse and hugging him enthusiastically.

"Yaar in less than an hour I'll be your official saala!" Navin told him, barely able to contain his excitement, "You have no idea how long I've waited for this day!" 

"Actually I think I do," Raj replied, "It would've been just before Diwali, right?"

And they both laughed before heading inside to be welcomed by Naina and Navin's parents and their relatives.

A few minutes later Raj was beginning to get impatient.

"Navin, if you can't bribe the pandit to speed up the wedding can you at least bribe him to call the bride down?" he whispered to his friend.

"Raj, you are too much." Navin told him, "Why have you suddenly become obsessed with bribing pandits?"

"Because I want to see my wife, damn it!" Raj said a little bit too loudly, and then noticing one of his relatives looking at him strangely quickly corrected himself, "Um, I mean my very soon to be wife!" And he coughed self consciously.

However Navin didn't have to bribe anyone because at that moment the pandit called for the bride to be brought down and Naina's friends rushed off towards the room she was in.

As she came down the steps, led by Tanu and the rest of her friends and wearing a beautiful lengha outfit, Raj let out a very long breath.

And then he forgot to take one back in.

He hadn't breathed in quite awhile, hadn't even moved when Navin shook him to wake him from his trance.

"Navin," Raj told him, "I love you, I really do." 

"Uh, shouldn't you be telling this to Naina?" Navin asked Raj, a little confused.

"Well of course I love Naina," Raj replied, "I mean I really love Naina, I really, really…" 

"Okay, okay, stop it!" Navin ordered him before he could start it all over again.

"But I love you as well," Raj told him emotionally, "Because if it wasn't for you and your stupidly named mission, we never would've met each other."

"Well that's quite alright." Navin replied, "I was more than happy to be of help. Now step forward and go garland your bride."

And without waiting for a further invitation, Raj grabbed the garland and practically bounded towards Naina, his friends and family barely managing to keep up.

"Hi, you look beautiful." He told her all in one breath, "Will you marry me?"

"Well Raj, that is sort of what we're here for." Naina replied, grinning, "So shall we do it?"

Before any more time could be wasted, Raj quickly put the garland over her head and then Naina just as quickly put the one she was holding over his.

Relieved that at least that bit was over, Raj grabbed Naina's hand and started leading her towards the mandap while everyone else looked on in amusement.

"Uh Raj, do you want to slow down a bit?" Navin asked him, "You two have plenty of time to get married, you know."

Reluctantly Raj slowed his steps, but only slightly.

Once they reached the mandap, they sat down for the mantras and Raj leaned over to whisper to Navin.

"Couldn't you just…"

"For the last time, NO!"

/

Unable to resist, Aalekh came closer to watch the rituals, leaning his arm on Neelu's shoulder. They grinned at each other, proud of the part they had to play in making this marriage a success.

It was then that Raj's father, hurrying on some task, bumped into them. Looking up to see who it was that he'd collided with, his face paled.

"What are you both doing here?" he asked them, "I promise I don't want Raj to marry your girlfriend, look, he's getting married to someone else right now!"

"I know," Aalekh said shortly, "And that's why we're here…. To make sure it happens. So it had all better go to plan."

And unable to resist, he glared slightly.

Raj's father turned even more pale, and quickly decided that he should go and check on the food arrangements.

As soon as his back was turned, Neelu and Aalekh high fived each other, unable to resist.

/

Raj felt like checking his watch but he wasn't wearing one. They'd made him take it off because it didn't go with his Sherwani.

Pity.

Finally the mantras ended, and his uttariya was tied to Naina's veil as they got up to take the pheres.

"Seven lifetimes together," he told her, "Are you ready?"

"I've been ready for a long time," Naina replied, "And I'm sure that there will never be a dull moment."

He took her hand in his and they made the rounds together, both of them unable to contain their grins.

Naina supposed that she should look more serious. After all, brides were supposed to be upset when the got married, sad to leave their families.

But it wasn't as if she was going to be leaving hers forever. In fact, Navin and Raj would have their first ever posting together, so she would have her Bhaiyya and Bhabhi with her for quite some time at least.

As they sat back down, Raj gave Naina a small thumbs up sign. Just two rituals to go and they would be married forever.

The mangalsutra was passed to him and he fastened it around her neck, giving another sigh of relief.

Then the last step arrived, the sindoor, and in his haste Raj put practically his whole hand into the powder.

"Uh Raj, I don't think you really need that much," Navin told him a bit doubtfully.

"Why not?" Raj asked him, "The more the better, right?"

And he marked her hair parting a vivid red.

Finally they were properly married and the two of them couldn't resist grinning at each other.

"I love you!" Naina declared to him, "I really, really, really love you!"

"Oh god, she's caught his 'really, really' disease," Navin exclaimed melodramatically.

But neither Raj nor Naina cared, because they were finally married and that was the only thing that mattered.


	29. Epilogue

**Chapter Twenty Eight – Epilogue**

After the rituals had all been completed, the happy couple had finally left for their honeymoon.

Naina supposed that she must be one of the first brides to ever actually be happy at her bidai, she had tried to cry, honestly she had, and it was lucky that she had had all of that acting practice to help her. But really, after everything they had been to in order to get to this point, there was no way she was going to cry on her wedding day.

That didn't mean that she wasn't going to put on her best melodramatic act ever though.

After hugging her parents and pretending to sob, she had thrown her arms around her brother.

"Oh Navin!" she exclaimed, "For the first time in life we'll be separated, your house will no longer be my house, how will I cope?"

Navin just rolled his eyes, he understood perfectly well that she was back to full on Meena Kumari mode.

"Don't worry," he told her, patting her back, deciding that he might as well play along, "I know I've done my duty as a brother, I've sent you to a good home."

In the background Raj had once again wished he was wearing a watch. This was taking far too long. The wedding had happened without any problems and the last thing he wanted was for his honeymoon to be delayed.

Eventually Naina was satisfied that she had proved her sorrow enough and they had left the hall, heading for the airport and their honeymoon.

Now it was three hours later and as they sat on the bed together, Raj held Naina's hands, partly examining her henna and partly playing with her bangles.

"So back at Diwali time, could you have imagined that this was how it would all turn out?" she asked him, "I mean that we would actually end up getting married of our own free will?"

"Actually I liked you back at Diwali time," Raj admitted, "I was probably at least a little bit in love with you already back then."

"Just a little?" Naina prodded, disappointed, "You didn't go completely fida over me the moment you saw me?"

"Does it matter when it happened?" Raj asked her, "I went fida over you eventually, didn't I. In fact I still very much am, very, very, very crazy about you."

And to prove his point he leaned over and began to softly kiss her, planting kisses along her cheeks, her neck, her shoulder…

Later on.

Much later on.

Much, much later on.

Much, much, much… okay, you have the idea.

Raj hugged Naina to him as she murmured something sleepily into his neck that he couldn't quite understand.

"What is it, Naina?" he asked her, and reluctantly she lifted her head up.

"Raj, when we eventually have children and they want to know how we met and fell in love… what on earth are we going to tell them?"

Raj stared at Naina in confusion before finally working out what her point was.

Theirs hadn't exactly been a conventional love story, in fact it was probably one of the strangest and most complicated ones that he'd ever heard.

"We'll tell them… that it was all their Uncle Navin and Aunt Tanu's fault." Raj finally quipped.

There was silence for a moment as they both drifted off further into sleep and then…

"Accha, Naina… do you know the phone number of the pandit who's conducting Navin and Tanu's wedding?"

"I can get it off Ma," Naina told him, "Why?"

"Because I want to bribe him to do the rituals as slowly as possible." Raj said with a mischievous grin and Naina broke into laughter.

"Don't you think we've already created enough mischief to last us an entire lifetime?" she asked him.

"Biwi, with you by my side, I don't think I'll ever be able to create enough mischief," Raj told her, and kissed her forehead.

But for now all that he really needed was to go to sleep with his wife, his properly twice wedded wife in his arms.

After all, he had a life full of schemes, operations, mischief and most importantly love that he had to be rested for.

Now that Naina and Raj were married….

The world would never know what hit it.


End file.
